LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Ohap..r.(?::;_|. copyright No._ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



i\i^ 



27 \900 




Thomas Gorrell Phillips. 



JK^, .^gj*a 




Semira Ann Phillips. 



D 




A Little Knowledge Acquired Under Difficulties— Tippecanoe 
AND Tyler, too — The National Road— Paw-paws— America's Black 
Forest— Apple Butter Boiling — St. Mary's in the Woods— Scott's 
Tavern— A Gentleman in the Rough— First Glimpse of Iowa— 
Paton Wilson— Colonels and Esquires— Not Dangerous— New 
Purchase — First View of Oskaloosa— Mahaska's First School- 
First Organization of Methodist Church— Killing a Bear- 
Quakers— A Blazed Path— Going to Meeting in Ox Wagon— The 
First Fire in Oskaloosa— First Editors of Oskaloosa Herald— 
The Bear Dance— Coal -Harrison Township — The War— Sorghum 
—Soldiers' Aid Society— Our Neighbors and Our Own Precious 
Dead— Many and Varied Reminiscences. 



% Ssmira L f 



Herald Print, Oskaloosa, Iowa, 1900. 



72274 



c;OPYRIGHT, 1900, 

BY 

S EMIR A A. PHILLIPS. 



l-it>iary of Confli '- 

''wo Copies Beceif' 
JUL 27 1900 : 

Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY. 
Delivered to 

ORDER DIVISION, 

JUL 28 1900 



•v 



To Effie Hoffman RogerSf 

Whose words of encouragement and 
faith in my ability led to the story of 
"Mahaska's First School," this un- 
varnished story is affectionately ded- 
icated by Mahaska's first teacher. 

The Author. 



CHAPTER I. 



The minds of children and young" people generally 
are so much taken up with the present that they are not 
greatly interested in things that happened and the people 
who lived long ago. Mahaska county's boys and girls 
are no exception to the rule. But to some of them a 
time will come when they will have become mature men 
and women, and will have lain off childish things and 
childish thoughts. Now when they hear old people tell 
of their early experiences it sounds old fogyish and unin- 
teresting; they wonder why father and grandfather and 
other old folks want to be forever talking about living in 
log cabins and breaking prairie, old looms and spinning 
wheels; but where is the man or woman forty or fifty 
years old who would not sieze with delight and read with 
intense interest any true account of their ancestors, es- 
pecially if they were good people? How they would like 
to know what kind of looking people their great grand- 
fathers and their great grandmothers were, what their 
habits were, how they lived, how they got married and 
how they buried their dead. 



14 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Every school boy and girl has heard much of the 
early life,' habits, struggles and ])rivations of Lincoln and 
Garfield and others who have risen to great eminence, 
but know nothing of their own grandfathers and grand- 
mothers. Many a good honest man or woman "who could 
not find it in their nature to do a mean or dishonorable 
thing, never think of how much they ought to thank the 
Lord that they sprang from God-fearing, honest, honor- 
able and industrious ancestors. Perhaps Timothy had 
never thought of his indebtedness to his grandmother, 
Lois, and his mother, Eunice, for the gifts within him 
until Paul called his attention to it. Solomon said: 
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he 
is old he will npt depart from it." They often depart 
from their parents' training when they are young, they 
sow wild oats, but after a while they find the crop not 
profitable; they begin to be dissatisfied; in fact, they 
have been dissatisfied all along, so when they find them- 
selves growing old they begin to look back, to admire, 
and finally fall into the faith and habits of their old fath- 
ers and mothers. 

I once knew a young man whose parents were hon- 
est, industrious farmers — not rich, but well-to-do. They 
were old-fashioned Methodists. This young man, when 
about twenty, left home and went west to make a for- 
tune. He was energetic and shrewd, and from a hired 
laborer he rose to a great contractor, made much money 
and sent many handsome presents to his parents and sis- 
ters. On one of his visits home, after being absent 
many years, he called to see me. He was a fine, gentle- 
manly-looking man, with the manners of one who had 



REMINISCENCES. 15 

seen much of the world. I was rejoiced to see him, and 
after telling- him how glad I was to see him and how well 
he looked, 1 said: "Now^ David, tell me about some of 
your experiences and some of the sig'hts you have seen." 
"Well," he began, "I have made and lost several for- 
tunes, have been from Alaska to Terra Del Fuego, have 
seen nearly every principal city on the continent of 
America, have been among- the coffee plantations of Bra- 
zil and the sugar plantations of Cuba. I have been as- 
sociated with every kind of people in the western world; 
have been in all climates, have wandered throug-h orange 
groves and vast vineyards of California. Well, it's not 
worth while to try to tell of half I have seen and exper- 
ienced. But whether among the great cities or vast 
plantations of the western continent, my thoughts ever 
and anon, would dart back to the humble, peaceful, un- 
pretentious Christian home away back in Iowa, where I 
knew my old father and mother, brothers and sisters, 
morning and night gathered around the family altar and 
with simple faith asked God to give them their daily 
bread and watch over the wandering one so far away; and 
now, after wandering up and down, and seeing so much 
of the world, I have come to the conclusion that much of 
it is vanity and vexation of spirit, and I would have been 
happier if I had have settled down in Iowa and lived 
more like my parents have lived. In my intercourse 
with men and affairs I have learned much which I would 
not have obliterated from my mind, 

''I love to think of the oceans, islands, valleys and 
mountains which delight the vision. The luxuriant trop- 
ical foliage and flowers are pleasant to remember, but 



16 MAHASKA COUNTY 

nothing now gives me the pleasure that the thought does 
that I sprang from and had the example of honest, hon- 
orable, Christian parents. I have had in my employ 
hundreds of men, have dug down hills and filled up val- 
leys, have tunneled through mountains and spanned 
chasms, have had conflicts without and conflicts within, 
but amidst it all I never quite lost my faith in God and 
the religion of my old father and mother. These 
thoughts come to us when we begin to discover that 
time is fleeting and we are nearing the place where we 
will begin to go down the hill of life.'" 

Some one has said that "forty is the old age of youth 
and forty is the youth of old age." 

I remember a time when every man or woman I knew 
was older than myself; now nearly every mau and woman 
I know are younger than myself, (^nly here and there a 
feeble, bent and white-haired man or woman who have 
seen the snows of more winters or the waving corn and 
green meadows of more summers than I have. 

I have seen a time when I thought a person old at 
forty. I have lived to see the time when men and women 
who are not beyond forty seem hardly to have arrived at 
mature manhood or womanhood. 

Three score and eleven years seem a time late in life 
to undertake the task of writing for the perusal of the 
present generation my recollections of the early settling 
of Mahaska County, and their ancestors w^ho were the 
early settlers, but that is what I propose to do if the Lord 
spares my life and mental faculties. 

Many of my friends and acquaintances seem to think 
that I have a clearer recollection of the early days and 



REMINISt'ENCES. 17 

events than some others who have been here quite as 
long-, and have urg"ed me to write, until I have finally 
"screwed my courag'e up to the sticking" place." 

So many thing's come looming" up in my mind I can 
hardly decide on what to tell first. x\way back in the 
forties and early fifties I knew nearly every man, woman 
and child in and around Oskaloosa. A few of them are 
left here and there, but only a few, and if I don't tell the 
story of the times when everybody lived in log" cabins, 
who will? 

Oskaloosa has grown to be a considerable city, but 
there is another considerable city not far away, a silent 
city, many of whose inhabitants are the men and w^omen 
who with honest purpose, courag'e and pluck helped to 
make this g"rand and glorious country what it is to-day. 
Here and there a block of g'ranite or a marble slab have 
carved in them a few- letters and fig"ures, telling" their 
names, when they were born and when they died. Some 
haven't even that — only a little mound overg"rown with 
g"rass. I wish I could tell to this g"eneration the hero- 
ism, hardships and self-denial endured by many of the 
inhabitants of that silent city. As I drive about the 
streets of that city I seem to be living" in the past. The 
friends of my youth are lying on every hand. I stop and 
make them a little visit, and think of the times we 
laughed and talked and ate and sometimes wept tog"ether. 

I dislike very much to have the pronoun ''I" appear 
so often in my story, but don't know how to avoid it and 
tell my story at all. I am mixed up with mucli of it in 
one way or another, and in telling of other people's af- 
fairs I must of necessity tell some of my own. The cap- 



18 MAHASKA COUNTY 

ital "I'' business has been worrying me ever since I be- 
gan to think seriously of writing this story. I have 
tried to think of some way to tell my recollections of the 
people and unwritten events of the early days without 
using the obnoxious "I,'" but have not succeeded. So I 
have given it up, and concluded to let the "I's" come in 
wherever they seem to be needed. My object is to tell a 
true story of the early days and make things as plain as 
I can. I have great respect and admiration for the peo- 
ple who first settled this wilderness. When I think of 
the character of those early settlers I feel that they 
were chosen of the Lord to lay the foundation of things 
in this goodly land. 

The greater number of the earliest settlers of Ma- 
haska County were from Ohio and Indiana; some were 
from Illinois, a few from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ken- 
tucky iind Tennessee. Ohio furnished the greater num- 
ber. The Ohio people are proud of their native State, 
and with good reason. Some of the best people I ever 
knew are from Ohio. Virginia is called the "mother of 
presidents,'' but the way things look now they will soon 
be calling Ohio ''the mother of presidents." 

The old Hoosier State is not very far behind in brains 
and good citizenship, though I can remember a time when 
Indiana was the subject of many jokes and uncompli- 
mentary remarks. But since Morton was governor and 
the Hoosiers acquitted themselves so honorably in the 
civil war, and General Lew Wallace wrote "Ben Hur," 
and James Whitcomb Riley has cliarmed the English- 
speaking world with the incomparable products of his 
brain and pen, Indiana has gone several steps higher on 



REMINISCENCES. 19 

the social ladder. Indiana never did deserve the scoffs 
and sneers and unkind epithets which used to be heaped 
upon her. ''Posey County'"' was a by-word much used 
by persons who were altogether ignorant of the beauty 
of its scenery, richness of its soil, and the grand old hero 
for whom the county was named. But that is the way of 
the world. States, like people, are sometimes thought 
to be of little account until they by accident or other- 
wise perform some heroic deed. Many a wordy battle 
have I had with those scoffers, trying to defend my na- 
tive State. My first recollections are of the little gravel- 
ly creeks, springs of clear, delicious cold water rushing 
out of hillsides and forming little brooks and tiny water- 
falls, then meandering away off" through meadows or 
woods, and finally losing themselves in the greater creek. 

The great tall poplars, sugar trees and beech, and 
the paw-paw bushes growing along its banks; the old log 
school-house where I first went to school when I was 
only three years old. I can shut my eyes and see the old 
Webster spelling-book with its pictures of the boy in the 
apple tree and the milk maid and her pail of milk, spilled 
and running all over the ground. Iowa is a grand State, 
with charming" kuidscapes and many other splendid quali- 
ties, but where is the man or woman living in Iowa whose 
childhood and youth were spent in Indiana or Ohio, who 
does not sometimes long for the sugar-making times in 
the spring, and the gorgeous red and yellow foliage of 
the sugar trees in October? I don't suppose they would 
thank me for my sympathy, but I sometimes feel a X'eal 
pity for the boys and girls who have never known the su- 
preme delight of gathering around a kettle of sugar oiit 



20 MAHASKA COUNTY 

in a camp when it is just ready to "stir ott'," armed with 
a tin cup of cold water and a paddle. We didn't mind mud 
and slush and wet feet, which always went along with 
sugar-making. 

Indiana was new in my childhood, but not too new to 
have big apple trees and peach trees and pear trees. 
Every farmer had an orchard, but if they had a big crop 
of fruit there was no market for it worth naming unless 
they dried their fruit. What a splendid time the young 
people used to have at apple cuttings and apple butter 
boilings. No well-regulated family was without their 
barrel of apple butter. Ai^ple butter was made by boil- 
ing down cider made of sweet apples to about one-third 
of the original quantity, then peeling and quartering and 
coring great mellow rambos and pippins, then putting 
them in that condensed cider, which was kept boiling 
continuously until the mass was done. The apples could 
not all be put in at once, but had to be added at intervals 
and stirred every moment from first to last. If the stir- 
ring was neglected for ever so short a time it was sure 
to stick to the bottom of the big copper kettle and burn. 
Some of those kettles held fifty gallons. It was consid- 
ered a great calamity to have one burned, for they cost 
an immense sum. I knew an old Pennsylvania German 
who was the envied possessor of one of those great ket- 
tles. He was a kind neighbor and would lend it all 
around, but always with the injunction, ''be sure and not 
let the butter stick.'' An apple butter stirrer always 
went with the kettle. This stirrer consisted of a handle 
many feet long, with a board with many big auger holes 
in it, firmly fixed at one end in an upright position and 



REMINISCENCES. 21 

long" enoug"h to reach from the top to the bottom of the 
kettle. By this means the persons operating it could 
stand several feet away from the fire and smoke. 

Usually at these "functions" a boy and girl would take 
hold of that long handle and stir together, and when one 
couple would stir awhile another couple would relieve 
them. What an opportunity that w^as for we boys and 
girls to talk ''nothings.'''' We talked as learnedly as we 
knew how about the last spelling school, who was the 
best speller, and who was g(^ing to "choose up" at the 
next one. I mean the boys and girls of my age, from 
twelve to fifteen, were the ones most interested in spell- 
ing schools. There was a set a little older who, perhaps 
were engaged in more serious conversation. 

I attended a country school once whose teacher was 
a young man who enjoyed spelling schools as much as 
any of us; he allowed us to choose up and spell every 
Friday afternoon. The boys played ball every day dur- 
ing the noon recess; they chose up to play ball as well as 
to spell. There was a big, good-natured boy in that 
school whose name was Jordan Pike. Jordan was al- 
ways first choice in the ball game, but in spelling school 
was alwavs last. 



22 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER II. 

The time I am writing- about was in the early forties. 
The country had not recovered from the financial crash 
of thirty-seven. Many families who had been accus- 
tomed to the comforts of life were reduced to poverty. 
Merchants were frequently sold out by the sheriff, and 
many distressing things happened. I was too young" and 
full of hope and bu(^yant spirits to comprehend or be 
much worried over the state things were in, and another 
reason was, I had never been used to anything like afflu- 
ence. But I had, what I think now was better than 
wealth — I had health and energy and an intense desire 
to be educated. I had great reverence for scholars and 
people who knew things. I was not afraid of anything 
but disgrace. My people were of Quaker stock who be- 
lieved in justice. In my childhood I was taught that 
nothing- was disgraceful but actual meanness in one's 
self. Opportunities for acquiring an education were 
]ioor, especially for poor people, though the poor were 
not very poor nor the rich very rich in Indiana fifty-seven 
years ago. The rich could send their daughters away 



REMINISCENCES. 23 

off to boarding-school, but the poor had to do as best they 
could. I never had the benefit of a public or free school. 
Not many years after the time of which I am writing" 
many of the young people I used to know in Indiana were 
sent to Earlham, but when I left they were just talking 
about building Friends' Boarding School, which was aft- 
erward called Earlham. But now from Maine to Cali- 
fornia and from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico 
can be found persons who at some time in their lives 
have been students at Earlham. 

In 1839 the citizens of the little town not far from 
where I lived built what was thought to be a very im^")os- 
ing structure — brick and two stories high. It was 
adorned with a portico with immense doric columns 
reaching from floor to roof. The first story was used as 
town hall and public assembly room, for almost any kind 
of meeting — literary, political or religious. The upper 
story was one great big school-room; this edifice was 
called a "Seminary." As soon as the Seminary was 
completed a gentleman by the name of Samuel K. Hosh- 
our opened a school in that upper room. Mr. Hoshour's 
fame as a teacher had reached our ears before he came. 
He taught all branches usually taught in that day, and 
many which were not usually taught in that region. His 
teaching ranged from the Third Reader to Higher Math- 
ematics, Latin, Greek, French and German. I never 
heard any one say that he was not master of all. I was 
wild to go to that school. I lived a little too far away to 
walk, and to hire my board in town was out of the ques- 
tion. Tuition alone was ^1.50 a term, and that seemed 
an immense sum. A dollar then was as hard to raise as 



24 MAHASKA COUNTY 

twenty is now, much as people talk ab(Hit hard times in 
th's year of our Lord 1898. 

It was finally agreed upon among us to have me 
work for my board in some family, if one could be found 
near the school who was willing" to take me in. I was 
less than fifteen years old, but was healthy and strong 
and willing to do any kind of drudgery to pay my way if 
I could only have the privilege of going to that school. 
I found a family w^illing to board me for the amount of 
work I could do morning's and evenings, Saturdays and 
Sundays. This family lived only three blocks from the 
school. They were very respectable and proper peo})le, 
but not much given to }Kirting with their worldly posses- 
sions wdthout receiving full compensation for the same. 
I was given a comfortable bed and good food, for which 
I thought then, and liave thought ever since, I fully 
compensated them. I washed the dishes after every 
meal, did the washing an:l ironing, fed and milked the 
cow, carried the milk down cellar and carried it up again. 
I did all the scrubbing and carried the water uj) a long 
flight of steps. Besides tlie things I have named, I per- 
formed fully half the labor in making thirty yards of rag 
carpet. I never had the nerve to attempt to carry my 
books home and study in the evening, for the carpet rags 
were always awaiting my attention when the supper 
dishes were disposed of. The lady was an excellent 
housekeeper, and everything had to be done at the proper 
time. How I (hd want to study my lessons in the even- 
ing, but she managed me so adroitly I never dared by 
word or hint to suggest the thought. The family retired 
regularly at half-past nine o'clock. I would have been 



REMINISCENCES. 2o 

glad to have had the privileg-e of studying- my lessons 
after the work was done, but the lii-e was covered up, 
and to have burned a candle after that hour was an ex- 
travagance }iot permitted in that house, 

I would carr}^ my books and slate home on Friday 
evenings and study as much as I could on Sunday, but 
sometimes I wanted to see my mother and little brothers 
so much that I would take the "near cut" and walk 
home on Sunday. I say ''widk, "' l)ut it was run a good 
deal of the way. This "near cut'' was through fields 
and woods and meadows, and necessitated climbing many 
staked and ridered fences. I didn't mind that, for I 
never knew in those days what it was to be tired. 

I can see, even now, how pleased my mother looked 
when I came Hying in; how^ interested she \yb^ in every- 
thing I had to tell. I wotdd tell her how well I was get- 
ting on in school, keeping up with my classes, and what 
a wonderful man Mr. Hoshour was, and the many things 
he told us about which I had never heard spoken of in a 
school before. And then I would tell her how well I 
was getting on with the housework at Mr. Nero's; they 
treated me kindly and found no fault with my work. 

Once she said to me: "Child, thee studies at night, 
don't thee?'' 

I said: "No, we are making a rag carpet, and work 
at that of nights." 

I remember well the look of pain which came in her 
face. She sat a little while without saying anything; 
then with a look of tender sympathy she only said, "well, 
child, do the l)est thee can and thee will come out all 
right." 



26 MAHASKA COUNTY 

How fast those Sunday afternoons would fly, and 
how soon the time would come when I would know I 
must hurry l)ack to milk the cow. 

Some of our iieig"hbors found fault with me— said I 
was selfish. They said I ought to stay at home and help 
my mother instead of fooling- my time away at school. 
I remember one woman in particular who took it upon 
herself to give me a piece of her mind on the subject. 
Having gone to her house one day on an errand, I found 
her in the yard vigorously stirring something in a large 
iron kettle hanging over a fire which was sending out 
huge volumes of smoke seemingly in every direction. 
As I drew near I saw that '"Melinda" (as we called her) 
was making soap, mid that vigorous stirring was to pre- 
vent its boiling over. Melinda didn't see me until I was 
at her side, for her face was hidden in the depths of a 
long slat sun-bonnet. When she looked up her eyes were 
red and streaming with tears, from the efl:'ects of that 
"contrary fire," as Melinda called it. She didn't stop to 
say "how de do," but in a sharp tone sang out: 

"Take that gourd luid bring me some lye, quick!'' 
I didn't Jose any time in snatching up that big 
crooked-handled gourd and flying to the ash-hopper and 
dipping up about two quarts of lye and handing it to 
Melinda. She siezed and dashed the whole of it into 
that boiling soap, which immediately settled down to 
more gentle motions, when Melinda remarked, ''I believe 
this soap's done, and you take hold and help me lift it 
off." I did as she desired, but as soon as the kettle was 
safely deposited on the ground Melinda began a tirade 
which I have not forgotten, although it has been nearly 



REMINISCENCES. 27 

sixty years ag^o. Melinda was one of those persons who 
believed in saying" just wliat they thoug'ht, reg"ardless of 
anybody's feelings. She had the reputation of being" 
able to accomplish more work in a g"iven time than any 
woman in the neig"hborhood. She spun and wove the 
cloth for all the winter clothing" for her family, the flax 
and tow for all the sheets, tablecloths and tow^els they 
used. She tended the g"arden herself and raised hun- 
dreds of chickens. She enjoyed tlie distincti(m of having" 
the first peas, new potatoes and fried chicken of any- 
body in the neig"hborhood. She didn't pay much atten- 
tion to raising" flowers, but g"ourds were a specialty 
with her. Every Summer, gourds of all sizes and 
lengths of handle could be seen growing on vines trained 
over her garden fence. Melinda would divide her gourds 
with her less thrifty neighbors. I think she even delight- 
ed in being generous in that respect, but at the same 
time would snap out the remark: "If you was any ac- 
count you could raise 'em yourself." 

I used to think Melinda could make gourds serve 
more purposes than any woman I ever saw. She used 
one enormous gourd for holding salt, another for soap, 
another for storing away her garden seeds; a beautiful 
long-handled, clean gourd w^hich would hold about a 
quart was always to be seen in the water bucket, and 
another like it was always hanging at the spring, and 
one of convenient size for dipping lye when slie made 
soap; which brings me back to what I was going to tell 
about the lecture Melinda gave me. She never stopped 
her work when a neighbor called, but w^ent right on with 
anything she happened to be doing. Work never inter- 



28 MAHASKA COUNTY 

fered with her talkmg". As soon as the soap settled 
down and stopped boilini^', she took up a gourd and com- 
menced dipping" it out and pouring" it into a barrel. At 
the same time she commenced talking to me in this wise: 

"See, here, my girl! They say you are going to 
town and go to school in that big Siminary, where a lot 
of proud, lazy, stuck-up boys and girls are trying to get 
smarter than their parents. I thought you had more 
sense than to fool your t'me away going to school. You 
had better stay at home and help your mother spin and 
weave, for I would like to know what good it is going to 
do you or any other girl to study all the nonsense I hear 
they do in that school." 

"You can read your Bible, can't youV" 
"You can read writing, can't you?" 
"You can write a letter can't you?" 
"What more do you want?" 

"I think you ought to be ashamed to go away and 
leave all the work for your mother to do." 

If I had been disposed to answer her questions I 
could not have found an opportunity, she ])lied them in 
such haste. And then, she didn't expect a reply. 

Melinda's scoring didn't effect me one way or the 
other, not even to make me angry. The neiglibors used 
to say: "Melinda's bark is worse than her bite." 

I kept watching the soap-dipping, and w^ondering if 
she would stop talking when she stopped dipping. She 
did stop long enough to take a breath after straightening 
up from her work, but just then the baby, that had 
been asleep in his cradle in the house, began to scream. 



REMINISCENCES. 29 

That seemed ta sug"g"est another idea, which was a clinch- 
er to her other arg'uments, so she Ijroke out a^^ain and 
her last thrust was: 

''Now, I'd like to know what g^ood g^eography and 
grammar is going to do you when you get married and 
have a lot of children to take care of." 

I couldn't think of anything' else to say, so I re- 
plied* "if that should ever happen I might be able to 
teach my children."" 

When I was ready to leave, Melinda gave me a hand- 
some straight-handled gourd to take to my mother. 

Melinda was something of a "Mrs. Poyser/' '*One 
of those women as is better than their word." And as 
Bartle Massey remarked, "Sound at the core, but sets 
one's teeth on edge." 



30 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER III. 

I had more faith in my mother's opinions than I had 
in the opinions of all the neighbors put together. I fin- 
ished that term of school, and the next winter went an- 
other term, making altogether six months I attended 
Mr. Hoshour's school. I have been glad every day for 
more than half a century that I had that privilege and 
blessing, even if it was brought about through great 
tribulation. 

How well I remember everything that came within 
my sight and hearing in that long ago time. The Wil- 
liam Henry Harrison campaign, with the "Tip and Tyler" 
shouts and songs. 

About the time of the presidential election I visited 
some relatives who lived about twenty-five miles from 
my home. The journey nearly all the way was along the 
national road. That road was lined with houses, many of 
them log cabins, nearly every one displaying some emblem 
or devise, supposed to represent General Harrison's he- 
roic battle at Tippecanoe, or some other scene of Indian 
warfare or pioneer life. What was most in vogue was a 



REMINISCENCES. • 31 

miniature lo|4" cabin, miniature hard cider barrel on which 
was hung" a miniature gourd, and all placed where the 
traveling public could not fail to see, generally on top of 
the house. I don't think we were out of the sound of 
"Tippecanoe and Tyler too'' the whole twenty-five miles. 

When I arrived at my uncle's home I found visiting- 
there the loveliest young Quaker lady, Mrs. Kenworthy, 
with the prettiest little baby in her arms; he had great 
blue eyes and red cheeks, and had on a long white dress. 
As soon as I disposed of my wraps I asked Mrs, Ken- 
worthy if I might take the baby. She handed him to me 
and he was not one bit afraid. I carried him about the 
room and out in the kitchen, sat down and rocked him, 
held him up to the window and let him look out at the 
chickens — did all the things that girls at the age I was 
then, usually do in such cases. 

I asked Mrs. Kenworthy how old he was, and she 
said "six months." Then I asked her what his name 
was; she said, "his name is William." I have never 
seen the lovely, serene face of William's mother since 
that November day in 1840, She was long since laid to 
rest among her people in the unpretentious Quaker 
burying ground. But William, who began life among 
the shouts and songs and music of brass bands, firing of 
cannon and parade with flags and banners, log cabins, 
and everybody shouting themselves hoarse for "Tippe- 
canoe and Tyler too," must in his infancy have imbibed 
the spirit of the times. When William grew to young 
manhood it was discovered that he was gifted with the 
power of orator}^ and could tell of heroic deeds in a 
manner to thrill and electrify his hearers. Near half a 



32 • MAHASKA COUNTY 

century after the time when his baby ears and eyes heard 
and gazed with wonder at the noise and parade made by 
those who wanted "Old Tippecanoe" elected President 
of the United States, William Kenworthy was known 
from one end of the land to the other as the brilliant 
speaker and advocate of ''Old Tippecanoe's" grandson 
for the same high honor. 

William Kenworthy has been for many years a lead- 
ing attorney of Oskaloosa, has been reading clerk in the 
house of congress, and has occupied other prominent and 
responsible places. Mr. Kenworthy is a portly, hand- 
some and distinguished-looking man, with some unde- 
scribable traits which we who are of Quaker stock and 
have been brought up among Quakers carry with us as 
long as we live, no matter where we go. 

I, like other school-girls, had a special girl friend 
whom I loved more than any other girl who was not re- 
lated to me by ties of blood. We sat at the same desk 
at Hoshour's school. Our families were neighbors and 
old friends, and Mary Newby and I were closer friends 
than sisters usually are. 

Not long after the great William Henry Harrison 
campaign there began to be much talk among our neigh- 
bors about Iowa Territory. Tw^o of them, one my friend 
Mary's father, traveled all the way to low^a and back 
again on horseback. His glowing account of Iowa's rich 
prairie soil and other good qualities put others in the no- 
tion of moving to that great country, where the land was 
already cleared, and where they would not have to cut 
down and burn hundreds of immense trees in order to 
have one little field. When I think now of the great 



REMINISCENCES. 33 

stately poplars, walnut and sug^ar trees which I have 
seen sacrificed, it bring-s a pang" of regret. 

I sometimes wish that one hundred miles square of 
that great wilderness of immense beauties, streams and 
rocks, hills, valleys and g"reat towering trees festooned 
with graceful vines had have been left a little more like 
God made them. Then this United States of America 
would have her "Black Forest" as charming and full of 
wonders as that of Germany and Switzerland. I would 
have the center of my imaginary "Black Forest," or 
National Park, in Bartholomew County, at a place which 
used to be called "The Haw Patch/' What wonders it 
would contain! The "Knobs," with their great chest- 
nut trees, spring gushings out of a hundred hillsides and 
rocky cliffs, gravelly brooks and tiny waterfalls, and 
vast caves full of nature's wonders — these and many 
other interesting things in the South, bordering on the 
Ohio river and extending many miles out from the same. 
Then there are the famous stone quarries about Bedford, 
the mineral springs near Knightstown, the red-buds, the 
spice bushes, the haw trees, the paw-paw bushes every- 
where. Very few of the giants of the American "Black 
Forest" had been dishonored by a blow from a settler's 
ax when my ancestors moved from North Carolina and 
settled in the dense forests of Southern Indiana. Some 
Indians were there, but I don't remember of ever hear- 
ing of an Indian cutting down a big tree. Bears and 
deer and wolves and panthers and raccoons and o'pos- 
sums roamed at will through this wilderness of gigantic 
trees and almost impenetrable undergrowth. There were 
no |)rairies in that "Black Forest," 



34 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER IV. 

Thirty years don't seem Icng" to those of us whom 
the Lord has permitted to see the Winter's snows and 
Summer's flowers and fruits of more than twice thirty 
years. Many things can be done and many changes made 
in thirty years. In that time farms had been made, or- 
chards were bearing an abundance of fruit, mills were 
plentiful, churches and school-houses had been erected, 
and people were just getting where they began to look 
like living, in Indiana, when the talk began about the 
rich, black soil of Illinois and Iowa Territory. Many 
who had lost much in the crisis thought they could see 
a way to mending their broken fortunes, some to make 
their first start; but anyway, many families put all their 
worldly goods in wagons and moved to Iowa. My friend 
Mary's people, among the rest, came in forty-two and 
settled on a large tract of land in the Mississippi bottom 
above Fort Madison. 

In the Autumn of forty-three my parents had dis- 
posed of all their possessions which they could not bring 
in two wagons, and like many others, had a teax'ful time 



REMINISCENCES. 35 

when we bade farewell to our neio'hbors and started on 
what seemed a long" journey. We soon dried our tears 
and began to be interested in scenes along- the way. We 
soon found ourselves on that once famous highway, ''The 
Cumberland Road," ambitious Young America's "Apian 
Way," commonly known as "The National Road." This 
wonderful thoroughfare was projected by the govern- 
ment and built at the government's expense, or as much 
of it as foas built. The great financial crisis of thirty- 
seven put a quietus on that stupendous undertaking. 
The original plan was to make a road wide and straight 
from Cumberland, Maryland, to St. Louis. St. Louis 
was the "far west" then. It was to be made level and 
macadamized the whole way. Hills were to be digged 
down and valleys filled up. Streams and chasms were 
to be spanned by covered bridges. It was supposed that 
anybody fortunate enough to own land on that road was 
to be envied. Towns sprang up all along, so near to- 
gether they often ran into one another. Much rivalry 
existed between those villages. Raysville and Knights- 
town were rivals. Knightstown was on high ground on 
one side of a little stream called Blue River, and Rays- 
ville was on the bottom, or lowlands, on the other side. 
They were both located and named before the road had 
been leveled. Those towns were built principally along 
one street, and that street was the National Road; they 
seemed to flourish about equally for a while, and each 
was jealous of the other. But when they came to dig 
down the hill east of Raysville and fill up the valley, the 
grade reached to the height of the second story win- 
dows, which necessitated building a long flight of steps 



36 MAHASKA COUNTY 

from their front g-ates to the street. Not only that, but 
in digging- that big hill down they struck a spring well 
up toward the top which sent out a volume of water that 
went rushing down one side of that high grade, and in 
front of the houses, which not only necessitated the high 
steps, but a bridge to cross the stream to reach them. 

I was only a child then, but remember well how the 
Knightstown people jeered and chuckled and crowed 
over the Raysville people. They took special delight in 
driving along that high grade and looking down on their 
unfortunate neighbors. Knigtstown, I presume, can 
boast of two thousand inhabitants, but Raysville has 
gone into oblivion. Raysville was named in honor of the 
man who was governor of Indiana at that time. Knights- 
town was named in honor of the man whom the govern- 
ment employed as chief engineer in the construction of 
that great highway. Jonathan Knight was a wealthy and 
honored citizen of Washington County, Pennsylvania. 
He was the grandfather of Miss Lizzie Knight, of Oska- 
loosa; Mrs. Ella Stone, and Mrs. Virginia Knight Logan, 
who has gained distinction as a singer. Fred Logan, her 
son, has quite a reputation as a musical composer. Mrs. 
Virginia Knight Logan is a handsome woman and has 
charming manners. John Knight, one of Oskaloosa's 
prominent horticulturists, is a grandson of Jonathan 
Knight. 

The plan was to macadamize the whole length of the 
national road, but it was abandoned before much macad- 
amizing was done in Indiana, only a little way out from 
the larger towns, Richmond, Indianapolis and Terra 
Haute. That road was horrid in the Spring, but in Au- 



REMINISCENCES. 37 

tumn, when the weather was dry, it was like one g-rand 
pavement. How many A^irg-inians, Pennsylvanians and 
Ohioans have traveled on that road in the thirties, bound 
for Illinois! I used to sit on the doorstep when I was a 
child and watch the great Pennsylvania wagons go by 
with their long teams of horses; some would have four, 
some six, and sometimes I have seen eight horses to one 
wagon, and every horse would have a row of bells over 
the hames. The driver would sit on the near wheel 
horse, with long whip. I can see them yet, swaying 
from side to side, as they slowly and contentedly wended 
their way. One day I concluded I would count the 
"mover wagons," as we called them, that went by. I 
sat and watched all day long, and counted one hundred 
and twenty, and I only counted the mover wagons. I 
didn't count the stage coaches, though they were always 
a delight to we children. A long train of cars now don't 
begin to interest children as the old stage coach used to 
interest us. How important and grand those stage driv- 
ers used to look, dashing into town, sitting on a high 
seat, with four matched horses on the gallop. 

The stage driver would blow his horn and crack his 
whip in a way which made all the boys around envious, 
and determined to be stage drivers when they grew up. 
The stage coach in that day was a grand affair, always 
painted a bright red, and ornamented with scroll work of 
yellow. They had immense, strong, curved springs back 
and front, which kept them continually rocking back- 
ward and forward if the road was at all uneven. Be- 
sides, there was a great leather-covered place at the back 
called the "boot," where trunks and other baggage was 



38 MAHASKA COUNTY 

carried. The driver always carried the mail-bags at his 
feet, for there was a place at his feet made for that ex- 
press purpose. The stages would come in full of passen- 
gers and sometimes four or five on top. The driver 
would dash up to the post-office door where the post- 
master was always standing ready to catch the mail- 
pouch. How dextrously the driver would toss that pouch! 
Then whirl his horses' heads toward Gary's tavern, throw 
the lines to the hostler, jump off of his high perch, and 
with the rest of the passengers stalk into the bar-room 
and call for a drink. That is the way they did in 
Knightstown in 1835. 

In traveling over that great highway, almost the en- 
tire width of the State of Indiana, we were hardly ever 
out of sight of a tavern. Not only in the villages along 
the way, but anywhere between might be seen a high 
post with a more or less pretentious sign swinging back 
and forth, with inscription thereon informing travelers 
of the proprietor's willingness to entertain both man and 
beast. 

We started on that momentous journey on October 
22nd, 1843. The days were lovely, hazy Indian Summer 
days; the nights were soft, smoky nights. The road was 
perfect —hard as iron and level as a floor. Our gait was 
so slow we had plenty of time to see everything that was 
to be seen. Sometimes a great walnut or hickory-nut 
tree stood beside the road, the ground beneath covered 
with nuts. We never had to look far for a stone to crack 
nuts with; they were lying around handy. . I have not 
forgotten the great, soft, yellow pawpaws we found right 



REMINISCENCES. 39 

by the road, just west of Indianapolis, in the White River 
bottom. Everything" of that kind was free to whoever 
chose to take it. The beech trees had taken on every 
shade of brown, the sugar trees every shade of yellow 
and red. Scenery all along- the road was charming". At 
least it was to me, who at that time was too young and 
full of health and hope to see anything but the bright 
side of things. 

I thought it delightful to sleep in a tent and cook by 
a log-heap fire. In our company were some unerring 
marksmen who would kill squirrels enough through the 
day to make a stew sufficient for all our suppers. The 
trees seemed to be full of squirrels, and dozens of them 
could be seen running along the fence of every cornfield 
we passed. That state of things lasted until we had 
crossed the Wabash River at Terra Haute. We then left 
the National road and turned a northwesterly direction, 
drove a few miles and camped at a place in a thick beech 
woods, within a few rods of where was being built a 
brick structure which we were told was a Catholic Con- 
vent. Part of the building" was near enough completion 
to open a school, which was already in progress. I 
thought it a very uninviting place. There was no fence 
about it, and great beech trees had been cut down and 
were lying all about that brick house, with their great 
sprangly tops so thick it looked like the place would be 
hard to reach. There were stumps and brush and masses 
of chips where, I presume, can be seen to-day a beautiful 
lawn and all other evidences of culture, for I now hear 
that place spoken of as "St. Mary's in the Woods." 



40 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Soon after leaving "St. Mary's in the Woods," the 
prairies of Illinois began to strike our vision. Paris was 
the first town we came to in Illinois. Paris was on the 
edge of a prairie. As soon as we passed the last house 
on the west side of Paris we came to a prairie ten miles 
across, without a single house. My first thought on see- 
ing that open prairie so close to town was wonder that 
they didn't have it all in fields of corn; but that feeling 
soon wore off as I saw more and more of the grand prairie. 
Our Indian Summer suddenly changed from a mellow 
haze to a leaden sky auid a damp, chilling wind. That 
state of the weather overtook us on the afternoon of the 
day we went througli Paris and commenced to cross that 
ten mile prairie. 

We had been pretty well informed regarding the 
roads and stopping places through Illinois. We knew 
there was a stopping place called Scott's Tavern, just at 
the edge of the timber, ten miles west of Paris. We had 
been told before we started, and several times on the 
way, that Scott's Tavern was a suspicious place; rumors 
were afloat that people had been robbed there. We felt 
a little wary, but darkness came upon us about the time 
we reached this place of unsavory repute. It was too 
cold to camp out, there was not another house near, so 
we took the chances of being robbed and murdered, and 
boldly went in and asked for shelter and the privilege of 
cooking in their kitchen. All was granted in a kindly 
manner. I don't know what the others thought, but I 
kept thinking about the rumors we had heard, and look- 
ing about to see if I could discover any evidence of our 
being in a den of robbers. I didn't see anything which 



REMINISCENCES. 41 

looked at all suspicious. There were two young women 
in the family, Mr. Scott's daughters, who kindly showed 
us where to find the things we wanted in doing our cook- 
ing. After our supper was over the young ladies invited 
us into their sitting-room, which was a large room with 
wide fireplace, where a cheerful fire was burning. Old 
Mr. Scott was a widower. A very plain-looking bache- 
lor son, whom he called "Tommy," and the two daugh- 
ters, constituted the family. This was Sunday night, 
and a young gentleman whom they called Mr. Price, 
came in and spent the evening. Presently they took 
down from a shelf som.e singing books, one the "Missouri 
Harmony," and began to sing some of the good old hymns 
I had been used to hearing and singing, too. 

Mr. Scott was a fine-looking old white-haired man, 
and looked more like a Methodist preacher than what my 
idea was of a robber. After they had sang one piece the 
old gentleman looked around at me and said, "young 
lady, don't you sing?" I told him I did. Then the 
young folks invited me to join them in singing, which I did, 
and we sang and sang. The next morning when we were 
bidding them good-bye that old man held onto my hand all 
the time he was making this nice little speech: "Young 
lady, you are a mighty good singer, and I hope when you 
get to Iowa you will go to church whenever you have 
a chance, and be a good girl; and I wouldn't wonder if 
you made a mighty fine woman, and would marry some 
nice young man out there." "Tommy" was standing by, 
so the old man finished by saying: "If you will stay with 
us you may have Tommy." 



42 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Our journeying through Illinois was not marked 
with any important event — just plodding" along over prai- 
ries, and occasionally a small grove or a larger body of 
timber. I don't think we passed through a town, not 
even a small village, between Paris and Springfield. If 
there were any towns between, our line of travel did not 
lead through them. Occasionally we would pass by 
a very fine farm, with tolerably good buildings, and there, 
like the rest of the way, movers could obtain food for 
themselves and teams, and shelter and hospitable treat- 
ment from those rugged, good-hearted farmers and their 
families. Not many orchards had begun to bear fruit, 
but sometimes we would see a few apples on small trees, 
which looked very tempting to us who had been used to 
having all the apples we wanted. But now we were in a 
country where we couldn't climb over the fence and take 
all the apples we wanted without anybody caring or 
thinking we were trespassing. That was in corn gather- 
ing time, and long rows of rail pens piled high with great 
ears of yellow corn were to be seen on every farm we 
passed, or when we stopped at one of those fine farms. 
They had corn and hay and bacon in abundance to sell to 
movers. That, I ])resume, was the way they disposed of 
their surplus crops. The road was literally lined with mov- 
ers. I don't remember ever hearing of one of those farm- 
ers asking an exorbitant price for anything they had to 
sell, nor for the privilege of sleeping and cooking in their 
houses. Movers usually camped out, but if the weather 
was too inclement for camping, a family could have that 
privilege for twenty-five cents. That was the regular 
price all along the road. When I look now at the map of 



REMINISCENCES. 43 

Illinois I see the places where we plodded over that long- 
stretch of sparsely-inhabited rich country, all checkered 
over with marks which represent railroads, and little 
rings which represent towns, crowding each other all 
over the map. 

The next town we came to after leavings Springfield 
was Virginia. Virginia was a very small village, but the 
country about there was grand: sugar trees abounded, 
and that alone would hide a multitude of faults with me. 
A few miles east of Virginia was a very large frame 
house standing out on a bare prairie without a tree or 
shrub or vine to relieve the barrenness. It was just a 
great big unpainted, uninviting looking house. There 
was no swinging sign to tell of the fact, but we were in- 
formed that this imposing structure was known far and 
near as "Dutches Tavern.'' and the proprietor thereof 
owned many hundreds of acres surrounding that uninvit- 
ing house. Since then a town has g^rown around that 
nucleus and is known as Ashland. In the little valley 
between those sand dunes a few miles east of Beardstown 
were groves of persimmon trees full of delicious ripe per- 
simmons. They seemed to be public property, so we 
helped ourselves. We crossed the great sluggish Illinois 
River in a ferry-boat at Beardstown. That ferry-boat 
was propelled by an old blind horse, whose continuous 
tramping on a wheel placed at one side of the boat fur- 
nished the propelling power which moved that ponderous 
craft and carried us without accident across that mighty 
river. That, I think, might appropriately be termed a 
''one horse power." When I read of the "tread-mill" 
punishment inflicted on the once aesthetic Oscar Wilde, 



44 MAHASKA COUNTY 

I thoug"ht of that poor old blind horse rowing' us over 
the Illinois River. Where we crossed, and as far up and 
down as we could see, that river was speckled with 
ducks. We camped that night near the river, four miles 
above Beardstown, and it was the same there, myriads of 
ducks. They seemed to be tame, for I saw men and boys 
out on the water in skiffs; the men would shoot, but 
their shooting" hardly seemed to cause a ripple among" 
the ducks. As I write I keep thinking what a bonanza a 
scene like that would be now to my neighbor, Dr. Clark, 
and to Dwight Jackson, Joe Stumps, Al. Mendenhall, 
Dr. Morgan, and many more of Oskaloosa's nimrods 1 
could name, who come in with a look of triumph on their 
faces, after plodding all day down in Skunk River bot- 
tom, if they are fortunate enough to bring in three or 
four ducks apiece. 

The country between Beardstown and Carthage was 
sparsely settled. We didn't see a comfortable-looking 
farm-house the whole way from Beardstown to Fort 
Madison. We passed through Rushville, which was a 
very small place, with a few frame houses, but the great- 
er number were log cabins. I saw several log houses in 
Springfield. There was a beautiful creek which we 
crossed several times between Rushville and Carthage, 
along which was fine timber. We camped one night on 
that creek in a cluster of sugar trees, which made us 
think of home. There was one "mighty hunter" in our 
party who knew the signs and sounds of every wild thing 
in the woods, and was always looking out for game. 
That evening just as we stopped for the night he snatched 
up his gun, remarking, "I heard some turkeys back yon- 



REMINISCENCES. • 45 

der." He hurried away and we presently heard the 
sound of his ritle. In a few minutes he came walking 
very leisurely toward the camp, holding a great big gob- 
bler by the heels. To roast him was out of the question, 
but my mother and another lady in the company dressed 
him, cut him up and stewed him in a pot by the log-heap 
fire that night, and the next morning we all ate turkey 
for breakfast. 

We heard many stories of highway robbery having 
been committed along that road, especially in that long 
stretch of almost uninhabited forest. It was said that a 
gang ot thieves infested the country, whose headquarters 
and hiding place was in the Mormon town of Nauvoo. 
We felt a little shaky that night, but no harm came to us. 
The day we left that camping place we went through 
Carthage. I went into a store in Carthage to make a 
small purchase, and that was the first time I heard 
twelve and a half cents called a "bit.'' I asked the clerk 
to explain to me what he meant by "bit." He looked 
disgusted at my ignorance, and laid a coin on the counter 
and asked me what I called that. I told him we some- 
times called it a "levy," but the more proper name was 
twelve and a half cents. He ended the dialogue by say- 
ing, "I guess bit is about as proper as levy." 

That day a gentleman overtook us who was driving 
a ]:>air of handsome gray horses to a light wagon. He 
kept along with our party till night, and stopped at the 
same farm house. He, like nearly everybod}^. else we 
chanced to meet, was sociable; inquired where we were 
"bound for" and where we came from. We told him who 
we were, and where we came from, and that we were 



46 MAHASKA COUNTY 

"bound for" Iowa. He told us his name was Isaac 
Frost and he lived in Iowa, near Fort Madison, and was 
well acquainted with our friends, the Newbys. Mr. 
Frost was an honest-looking", tall, manly-looking" young 
man. The last day had come before reaching' Iowa; the 
morning was fine, and the thought that we w^ere going to 
see and cross the mighty Mississippi that day sent a 
thrill of joy through our hearts. Mr. Frost might have 
trotted off with his dashing horses and empty wag"on, 
and left us far behind, but he kept along" wdth us, and 
after we had gone some distance he said to me and an- 
other g"irl in our company: ''Girls, won't you take a seat 
in my wagon V I want to show you the first glimpse of 
Iowa and the great 'Father of Waters.' " We accepted 
his kind offer, and were engaged in talking about Iowa, 
our old friends, a little sense and a good deal of nonsense, 
when suddenly Mr. Frost stopped his team, and pointing 
toward the west, exclaimed: "Girls, do you see that 
smoky streak away over yonder'?" We said, '"Yes; what 
is it?" He said, "That is Iowa." We wanted to know 
what made it look smoky. He replied: "I can't explain 
the phenomenon, but in this country, when you see a 
smoky line like that, you may know it means land1)eyond 
a river." 

I presume Mr. Frost would have driven us all the 
way to the river, but we happened to have sense enough 
to suggest that he, perhaps, would like to travel a little 
faster than our teams did, and we would join our people, 
then he could go as fast as he liked. He was a great 
manly gentleman in the rough. He sprang out, then 
handed us out, and we thanked him for the kindness he 



REMINISCENCES. 47 

had shown us. He bowed and smiled, sprang to his seat, 
looked back and bowed again, cracked his whip and 
dashed off toward Iowa. I have never seen Mr. Frost 
since that day, but my friends, the Newbys, said he was 
just as nice as he seemed. 



48 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER V. 

What excitement there was among" us young" folks 
when the mig"hty Mississippi did at last come into view. 
I wondered what made the water seem to be hig"her than 
the ground where we were. We were all cal'ried across 
in a steam ferry-boat, and the first Iowa soil we touched 
was that river brink at Fort Madison. That was on the 
7th day of November, 1843. I was prepared to be pleased 
with everything in Iowa. The first building" which 
loomed up in sight was the penitentiary, the most impos- 
ing" structure in the villag"e of Fort Madison; it was just 
a villag"e then. 

We drove about three miles up the river to our old 
friends', Gabriel and Rebecca Ne why's home, in the 
Green Bay Bottom, where my schoolmate and dear 
friend, Mary, and I fell in each other's arms and wept 
for joy. Our mothers did the same. What a time we 
had that night talking" about old times in Indiana, and we 
telling about all the old friends and neighbors we all 
knew so well. There were several other children in the 
family, l)ut Mary was the oldest and my special friend. 



REMINISCENCES. ^ 49 

though I loved all of them. We found our friends, the 
Newbys, living- in a log house at the foot of the bluffs, 
their immense corn-fields stretching away off toward the 
great Mississippi. The bluff's were covered with a vari- 
ety of trees, and in the bottom near the bluff's were great 
sugar trees, and oaks and elms as tall and majestic-look- 
ing as those we had left behind. Mr. Newby had been 
one of the rich men in Indiana. They lived in and 
owned the finest farm-house in all that region, and he 
owned several farms, a large flouring-mill, a store in 
town, the finest barn in the country, horses, carriages, 
and every kind of farming implement used in that day. 
Besides all that, their house was furnished with the most 
expensiv^e furniture there was to be seen in that neigh- 
borhood. Mr. and Mrs. Newby were whole-souled, hon- 
orable people, and the children were "chips of the old 
block.'' The crisis of thirty-seven wrought his financial 
ruin, or nearly so. He managed to save enough out of 
the wreck to locate his family where land was cheap in 
the Green Bay Bottoms. A few articles of furniture that 
once adorned their elegant home could be seen in their 
log cabin of two rooms. They all were cheerful and in 
good spirits. Mary said to me: "Semira, you don't see 
us in as fine a home as you used to, but we are just as 
happy as we were there." 

Those people were brave and full of pluck. Not 
only that, but they were endowed with bright minds. 
One of the daughters in after years was called a charm- 
ing writer, and it was said of one of the sons, by a man 
who knew what he was talking about, "Tom wields a 
graceful pen/' Every one of those children were en- 



50 MAHASKA COUNTY 

dowed with brains, honor and common sense. The father 
and mother and two of those gifted children sleep near 
the great Mississippi. The mighty pacific beating its 
rock-bound shores, sounds an eternal requium over the 
grave of sparkling, brilliant "Tom.'' 

Mary, my schoolmate and best-beloved friend of my 
young girlhood, married one of God's noblemen, an intel- 
ligent Christian farmer. Mary has no daughters, but is 
mother of eight sons. Not only the proverbial seventh 
son is a doctor, but she has two doctors among her sons. 
Mary, like myself, I presume, regales her children and 
grandchildren with stories of spelling-schools, sugar- 
making, apple butter boiling and Hoshour's school. 

In 1843 Fort Madison was new, but the little town, 
and as much of the country about as we had seen, espec- 
ially the Green Bay Bottom, had a charming and go- 
ahead look, and there was the great Mississippi river and 
there were our old neighbors. I wanted to stop there, 
but it was ordered otherwise; there was another tearful 
parting, when the next morning we started for Salem. 
We thought then that we would visit and see each othei 
often, but I never saw a member of that family for twen- 
ty years after that parting among the sugar trees in the 
Green Bay Bottom. 

After climbing the long, high, steep Mississippi bluff 
and passing through some fine woods, we came out on 
the open prairie, and it was prairie almost without a tree, 
until we reached my uncle's house, a mile east of Salem. 
We passed by many fine farms, but small and uncomfort- 
able-looking buildings. The day was cloudy and chilly 



REMINISCENCES. 51 

and a northeast wind was blowing'. The roads were good 
and we were so elated with the prospect of seeing" our 
kinfolks before night that we didn't mind the weather 
very much. I had come to Iowa full of buoyant spirits 
and prepared to like everything, but that day as we plod- 
ded along through some long stretches of prairie, with- 
out a house or tree, or anything to relieve the monotony, 
I couldn't help thinking they looked bleak and brown and 
bare. That was the 8th of November, and the greenness 
had all gone out of those otherwise beautiful, undulating 
native meadows. 

There was a joyful meeting and a time of embracing 
w^hen we reached my uncle's house. My mother and her 
sister had not met for many years, and I can see them 
yet, as they threw their arms around each other and shed 
tears of unfeigned joy. I had heard much about my 
uncle and aunt, Aaron and Delilah Cox, but had only seen 
them twice since I was old enough to remember them. 
They lived a long way from us in Indiana, and besides, 
they had been in Iowa several years. They had seven 
children; the oldest, Eliza Ann, was fifteen; Elizabeth 
was next, then William, then James, then Deborah, then 
Mary Ellen, then the baby, Edmond. Aunt Delilah was 
a Quaker, a concientious. Christian Quaker, and was not 
satisfied to live away from her kind of people. Uncle 
Aaron was not a member of any denomination, but was 
an honest, honorable, moral, kind-hearted man; kind to 
his wife and children and ready to do his duty as a citi- 
zen. I had always heard him spoken of as possessing all 
those qualities, and when I became better acquainted 
with him I had reason to know it was all true. 



52 MAHASKA COUNTY 

We had not been long in my uncle's house before we 
learned that they were going to move to the "New Pur- 
chase," about seventy-five miles northwest of Salem. 
We were much astonished and sorry, for we expected to 
locate near Salem. Uncle and aunt had just returned 
from a trip to the "New Purchase," where they had 
bought a claim and were going to move there in the 
Spring. We thought they had a fine location where they 
were; their house was on high ground overlooking Salem, 
their timber was not far away, and their prairie land was 
just rolling enough to be all right for cultivation. My 
uncle had bought a large tract of land there, but on a 
great portion of it the title was defective, and he had 
lost it, which had disgusted him with the place. The 
man he bought of was a scoundrel and not responsible. 

This "New Purchase" had, they told us, on the first 
day of May last been opened up to settlers, and a number 
of first-class people had made claims and quite a number 
were already living on their claims. My aunt was a 
close observer and a good talker. She expatiated on the 
beauties of the country, especially on a place called "The 
Narrows," where the timbers bordering on the Des 
Moines and the timbers bordering on the Skunk rivers 
were not more than a mile apart. She w^ent on to say: 
"The timber and prairie are more evenly divided, there 
are no great patches of scrubby oak and hazel brush be- 
tween the prairies and the main timber, like there is 
here, but the clean prairie extends up to the big timber, 
and the trees stand out clear, like an orchard; there are 
many small streams and springs; they can have a good 
well by digging fifteen feet, and there is plenty of stone. 



. REMINISCENCES. 53 

I have heard there is thought to be stone coal. There is 
already a small settlement of 'Friends,' and there is a 
prospect of more coming" in. I like our claim; there is 
timber on the north and timber on the west. They say 
the reason there is so little brush along the edges of the 
timber is the Indians kept it burned off. The Indians 
have just left there. I saw Indian trails which looked 
like they had been used lately." 

We rented a little cabin and spent the winter in Sa- 
lem. Salem was not a very attractive place at that time, 
whatever it may have become since. It was located in a 
fine farming country, but the little town of Salem seemed 
to be built right down in the mud; it had a public square 
like nearly all other Iowa towns, and the two or three 
little stores, the tavern and several small dwelling houses 
were locacted immediately on that square, without a 
walk of any kind, not even a board laid down to prevent 
the mud being carried in the houses. 

Nearly all the inhabitants of Salem and the country 
round about were either Quakers or Methodists. The 
Quakers had a log meeting-house where they held meet- 
ing regularly, though the house was cold and uncomfort- 
able; that meeting-house was used as a school-house, too, 
when I was there. The Methodists held their meetings 
in private houses, not only prayer and class-meetings, 
but Sunday preaching. Those people did not seem to 
think it any hardship to hustle around of a Sunday morn- 
ing and put their one room in order for meeting. What 
I mean by order was to get the beds made up and the 
dishes washed and seats fixed for the congregation; they 



54 MAHASKA COUNTY 

had some boards leaning against the back of the house 
which were kept for that express purpose. They bor- 
rowed chairs from their neighbors if they lacked. It 
was nothing unusual to see the dinner -pot by the fire 
with pork and turnips therein, cooking away while the 
meeting was going on. Brother Simpson or Brother Al- 
len Johnson, one or the other, preached there nearly 
every Sunday. When the meeting would break up, the 
boards and other temporary seats would be taken out, 
and the woman of the house would spread her table as 
best she could with broken forks and any kind of odds 
and ends of old cracked plates and cups, make some cof- 
fee and biscuit, invite the preacher, and perhaps two or 
three others, to eat dinner with them. 

Quakers predominated in and around Salem. Many 
of them owned large bodies of land and raised immense 
crops of corn. The tavern was owned and kept by a 
family of Quakers b}^ the name of Pickering. The Pick- 
erings were remarkably tall people and much above the 
average in intelligence. Aquilla, the son of that Salem 
tavern-keeper, was a young man then. I saw him fre- 
quently in the winter of '43 and '44, but never again un- 
til I saw him moving about in the throng in the Yearly 
Meeting grounds at Oskaloosa, soliciting patronage for 
the organ of the Friends' church, The Clwisfian Worker^ 
of which my brother was editor. If these lines are ever 
read by a Quaker, he or she will know who I am talking 
about. Aquilla Pickering was a very fine -looking man. 
When I saw him moving about in that vast multitude in 
the yearly meeting grounds, I thought of Saul, the son 
of Kish, for he was a head and shoulders above every 



REMINISCENCES. 55 

other man. Early in the Spring of 1844 my uncle and 
family moved to the "New Purchase." and we moved 
four miles north of Salem and not far from a beautiful 
rocky creek called Cedar. There were lots of sugar 
trees on Cedar. One day I went with some other young 
people to a sugar camp where a man was making sugar. 
He had some sugar about ready to "stir off" in a big iron 
kettle. It had that tempting, yellow, blubbering, puffing 
look which sugar always has when it is about done; the 
man had a great big ladle in his hand and was dipping up 
and down in that tempting-looking mass, and I thought 
he would surely offer us some of it, but we were doomed 
to disappointment. If he had been making soap he 
would not have been farther from asking us to taste it. 



56 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER VI. 

Paton Wilson was a prominent citizen of that neigh- 
borhood; in fact, he was well known through all that re- 
gion. He owned a large scope of that country and was 
a member of the Territorial Legislature. I remember 
Mr. Wilson as a strong, robust man, not far from fifty 
years old, with a pleasant way of treating young people. 
He was easily approached, and at the same time one felt 
that he was a superior person and a leader among men. 
He and his wife were excellent neighbors, as we had rea- 
son to know. The Wilsons ministered to the sick and 
helped the less thrifty in various ways, without seeming 
to think they were doing anything unusual or remarka- 
ble. One evening soon after I went to that neighbor- 
hood one of the Wilson girls asked me to go with her to 
see a sick man who lived about a half a mile away. As 
we were about to start, Mrs. Wilson came out of the 
kitchen with a good-sized basket rounded up with some- 
thing which we couldn't see, for a nice linen towel was 
spread over it and tied down with a string. As she hand- 
ed it to us she said: "Girls, you may be needed there to 



REMINISCENCES. o7 

sit up, for Allen is very low. I have put some thing's 
in this basket for Celia and the children; if there 
is nobody else there you had better stay all night : you 
will find a dried apple-pie at the bottom, which you can 
eat if you g^et hung^ry in the nig"ht. Give the rest to 
Celia, and tell her when she needs anything" to send me 
word. I don't think that poor man is going to live long. " 

Ursula Wilson and I went tripping" across a field and 
over a little strip of prairie to the miserable little cabin 
where that poor man was dying. It was nearly dark, 
and when we entered we could hardly see the poor, for- 
lorn-looking woman crouched down by the fireplace with 
a little child in her arms: another little pitiful-looking" 
child about four years old was standing by her. Ursula 
sat the basket down and spoke to the woman, who seemed 
hardly to have life enough to notice us. The cabin was 
like many others thereabout. Only one room, a very 
small window in one side, a door on the other, a very 
much botched-up stone fireplace and chimney. 

Ursula was one of the kind of girls who take in the 
situation, and didn't stand on ceremony. She threw off 
her bonnet and shawl, took up the wooden poker and 
stirred the dying chunks, and soon had a blaze which 
lighted that miserable hovel sufficiently to enable us to 
see in one corner a poor, scantil3"-f urnished bed on which 
was lying a poor, emaciated creature with his knees 
drawn up with rheumatism, and set, so that he couldn't 
possibly straighten them down. Poor Allen was past 
taking nourishment. Though we offered it to him, he 
could do nothing but moan and motion it away. The 



58 MAHASKA COUNTY 

hearth was made of flat stones of irregular shape and 
very poorly put together. The floor was loose, and rat- 
tled as we walked over it. Another bed, like to the one 
on which the sick man lay, was in another corner; three 
or four splint-bottom chairs, a square rickety table, a 
few cooking utensils, and a very meager supply of dishes 
constituted the furnishings of that wretched abode. 
Ursula asked the woman if she expected any one there 
that night to sit up, to which she replied: "Wash. Lyon 
was here to-day and he said he would come to-night and 
stay awhile. Ursula took the towel off and laid the con- 
tents of the basket on the table — all except the dried 
apple pie; she spread the towel over that, and placed the 
basket on the shelf where the three or four plates and 
cups were kept. Ursula said not a word as she took 
from that basket a loaf of salt- rising bread, a piece of 
bacon, a roll of butter, a bowl of plum sauce, a package 
of sugar, another of coffee, and two tallow candles. 
When she was sure she had placed everything on the ta- 
ble her mother intended for Celia, she said: "Here are 
some things mother sent you, thinking perhaps you had 
very little time to do cooking, and these would help you 
a little." The poor woman may have felt grateful, but 
she didn't seem to know how to express her gratitude. 
We urged her to go to bed with her children; we would 
watch by her husband and call her if necessary. She 
acted on our advice, but before doing so she and her little 
girl each ate a big slice of that bread spread with butter 
and plum sauce. 

I lighted one of the candles and looked around for 
a candle-stick, but finding none, I improvised by wrapping 



REMINISCENCES. 59 

a rag- around the unlig-hted end and sticking it in the 
mouth of a jug- which 1 found under the table. That 
night was not very cold, but too cold to do without fire, 
Ursula and I went out and looked for wood to replenish 
the fire. We found some scattered around but it was not 
very plentiful. Just as we were in the act of picking up 
that scanty supply of wood, a gentleman came walking- 
toward us. Ursula introduced him to me as Mr. Lyon. 
The first thing Mr. Lyon did was to snatch up an axe and 
go to chopping on a log". We went in the house and 
presently Mr. Lyon came in with a tremendous armful of 
wood and deposited it in the corner of the fire-place, 
which was at least six feet wide. He laid two or three 
sticks on the fire, then went to the sick man. I will 
never forget the tenderness in his voice as he bent over 
that sick man and asked him if he knew him and wasn't 
there something- he wanted? He tenderly adjusted the 
poor man's pillow and shabb}^ quilt, then sat down by the 
fire and entered into a conversation with us. He had a 
pleasant, honest looking- face, dark hair and eyes, was a 
little above medium height: altogether he w^as a manly 
looking- man. He replenished the fire occasionally 
through the night, brought in a bucket of water, and 
some time during- the night Ursula took down that dried 
apple pie and we three ate it. 

That man x\llen, like many others in that region, had 
come a few years before when land could be bought very 
low. He had a little money, bought a quarter section of 
unimproved land, built the cabin which I have described, 
broke some prairie, made rails and fenced a considerable 
field. He worked early and late, exposed to cold and 



60 MAHASKA COUNTY 

heat and rain and dew. Some men could have done all 
that and came out apparently sound, but Allen broke 
down, and when I first saw him he had been a whole year 
confined to his bed, and was dying" amidst those wretched 
surrounding's. His poor worn-out wife hardly had life 
enoug"h left to feel sorrow or joy or g^ratitude. 

A few days after that memorable nig"ht, I attended 
his burial. There was a kind of a crude carpenter and 
cabinet-maker not far away who had a shop in his home 
and made cofiins. This cabinet-maker's name was Whit- 
acre. I remember seeing" he and his son bring" in the 
coffin for Allen. It was a respectable looking coffin, but 
hardly deep enough to take in those poor bent knees, and 
they had to press them down to g"et the lid on. Mr. 
Whitacre then took a hammer and great big" nails and 
fastened down the lid of that coffin. I had seen coffin- 
lids fastened down with screws and a screw driver, but 
never before nor since have I seen a poor dead body shut 
up in a way that looked and sounded so horrible to me as 
that did. I looked around and wondered how that poor 
wife must feel on hearing that cruel pounding" on her 
husband's coffin. The poor, shabbily-dressed, forlorn- 
looking creature was sitting by the corner of the fire- 
place with tears streaming down her face, and her little 
frightened-looking children were crouching down by her. 
The Wilsons and Mr. Lyon were there, and several 
others, with wagons to go with them to the grave. Mr. 
Wilson furnished a wagon to take the corpse, and Mrs. 
Wilson brought a clean white sheet to spread over the 
coffin as it was being taken to the grave. Mr. Wilson's 
hired man drove the team and the Wilsons took the poor 



REMINISCENCES. (31 

woman in with tliem, and after the funeral they took 
them to their own home and kept them for days. 

The people about there, even those whi) were called 
''well off,''' had v^ery few of the comforts of life. Some 
had large bodies of land, big prairie plows, long- strings 
of oxen, and thousands of bushels of corn. But only 
Mr. Wilson's and two other families that I became ac- 
quainted with had so much as a strip of rag carpet on 
their floors. Everybody cooked by a fire-place;' not even 
the Wilsons had a cooking stove. There were ledges of 
stone along Cedar Creek that looked almost like they had 
been laid up by a mason, and they were so easily taken 
out that everybody had a stone chimney and a big stone 
hearth. Timber was plentiful along that creek, and 
everybody who owned a prairie farm also had a piece of 
timber on the creek. Skunk river was only a mile or 
two away. 

I soon became quite well acquainted with Mr. Lyon, 
who knew the country and the people all over Henry 
County. When he learned that I had taught one term of 
school in Indiana, and w^ould like to teach a school some- 
where about there if I could get one, he offered to assist 
me. In a day or two after, he came to see me and said 
he thought he had found the place. Just north of Mt. 
Pleasant was a splendid neighborhood, where they want- 
ed a teacher; there was a good school-house, and that 
was considered one of the best country schools he knew 
of. There were no public schools or school fund then, 
but the neighborhood had organized themselves into a 
school district and had appointed two prominent citizens 



62 MAHASKA COUNTY 

to act as directors, to examine and employ teachers. 
Mr. Lyon had seen those directors and talked with them 
about me; they told him to have me draw up an ag^ree- 
ment and come to see them, bring'ing' the article with me. 
Mr. Lyon proposed to g"o with me and introduce me to 
said directors. This w^as in March, 1844, and that was 
an early Spring*. The prairies were green and trees be- 
g"inning" to put out in March. Mr. Lyon appointed a day 
to g"o, and I went to work to brush up in my grammar 
and geography. One of those directors was Esquire 
McMillen and the other Esquire Smith. Esquire McMil- 
len was also called ''Colonel.'' I felt a little afraid of 
those high-sounding titles, but kept my courage up as 
well as I could, and went on with my nouns and verbs 
and moods and tenses, &c. I felt pretty confident of my 
ability in the rudiments of arithmetic, and geography 
didn't worry me, for I had learned to sing my geography, 
and had every body of water, peninsula, cape, isthmus, 
mountain, island and capital in the knowQ world at my 
tongue's end. I was not called upon to teach grammar 
in the school 1 taught in Indiana, but I didn't know what 
abstruse sentences those titled and supposed-to-be learned 
directors might call on me to parse. 

When the morning came on which I was to start on 
that momentous trip, I was up bright and early, dressed 
myself to look as well as possible, then had a handsome 
black horse which w^e called "Coby" saddled. About 
the time I was ready to go Mr. Lyon came dashing up on 
a handsome bay. I was at home in the saddle in those 
days, and was not afraid to jump ditches nor any other 
thing that usually came in the way of horseback riders. 



REMINISCENCES. 63 

It was a bri^rht Spring' morning" and the road was fine. 
Farmers were plowing and sowing" oats, cattle were graz- 
ing" on the prairies, and birds w^ere singing. I w^as young 
and the world looked so bright, that I would have been 
very happy had it not been for the dread of the ordeal I 
thought I would have to go through in being examined 
by those august school directors. Mr. Lyon seemed to 
know every man, woman, and child along the road. He 
was a pleasant talker, and interested and amused me by 
telling their history and relating incidents and anecdotes 
of his own experience since coming to Iowa. I had never 
seen Skunk river, and when we came in sight of it I was 
surprised to see a river so wide and clear and shallow as 
that classic stream is in Henry county. The water w^as 
clear as crystal, running over a rocky and gravelly bed. 
It wasn't more than knee deep to our horses. There 
was a large mill just above the ford, and the water pour- 
ing over the dam made a sound I always like to hear. 
Mr. Lyon informed me that was ''Wilson's Mill"; not 
Mr. Paton Wilson but another Wilson. After we crossed 
Skunk river our road led through some fine woods. We 
crossed a creek called Big creek which seemed to me was 
"big" enough to be called a river. After going through 
the woods bordering on Big creek we came out on the 
open prairie and in sight of Mt. Pleasant. The town 
stood out in bold relief, and the country all around looked 
charming. The prairies had been burned off, the grass 
was coming up, and it had the appearance of a great 
smooth-mown lawn. As we passed through the town I 
noticed a clean, respectable look all about the houses 
and streets. There were churches and many comfortable 



64 MAHASKA COUNTY 

looking dwelling's. Everything I saw in or about Mt. 
Pleasant had to me the appearance of respectability and 
thrift. 

After we had passed Mt. Pleasant and gone perhaps 
a mile, Mr. Lyon pointed to a farm-house a little way 
ahead, and remarked: ''That is (.'olonel McMillen's." I 
felt that the time had come for me to brace up, and "put 
my best foot foremost." I had told Mr. Lyon on the 
way that I was afraid I would be so embarrassed when 
the Colonel began putting me through what I supposed 
would be a fearful ordeal that I wouldn't be able to tell 
the little I did know. We rode up to the gate, alighted 
from our horses, and as we started toward the door Mr. 
Lyon remarked: "Don't you worry; you will get along 
all right.'' His words gave me courage. We went into 
what seemed to be the sitting-room, met two ladies, one 
an elderly, pleasant-looking lady, whom Mr. Lyon intro- 
duced as Mrs. McMillen, and the young lady as Miss 
McMillen. They received us politely and asked us to be 
seated, but Mr. Lyon hastened to inform them that we 
wished to see the Colonel on business. The young lady 
ushered us into an adjoining room and into the presence 
of the Colonel, who was sitting by a table which was cov- 
ered with papers and writing material. The Colonel be- 
ing a justice of the peace, I took that to be his office. 
He was writing when we went in, but looked up, and rec- 
ognizing Mr. Lyon, arose and shook his hand. Mr. Lyon 
then introduced me. I ottered the Colonel my hand, 
which he grasped in a manner sufficiently cordial to dis- 
pel to some degree my fears. Colonel McMillen was a 
dignified, elderly gentleman, dark-complexioned, his hair 



REMINISCENCES. 65 

sprinkled with gray. After making" a few remarks to Mr. 
Lyon about the weather, he addressed me in this wise: 
"Well, Miss Hobbs, you, I presume, are the young lady 
that Mr. Lyon has been telling me about, who would like 
to teach school for usV I answered, "That is what I 
ca-me to see you about, and if you think me capable, and 
w^e can agree on terms, I will be pleased to teach your 
school. '' I proceeded to show him the article I had draw^n 
up. He adjusted his glasses, read it over carefully, then 
looking me straight in the face, said: "Young lady, did 
you write this?" I said, "Yes, sir, I wrote it.'' In my 
article I proposed to teach reading, spelling, writing, 
geography, arithmetic, and English grammar. He reached 
up to a shelf above his table and took down a book which 
I could see was a "Kirkham's grammar.'' He opened 
the book at the author's preface, handed it to me, and 
asked me to read. I read a few paragraphs, about half a 
page, when he remarked, "That will do." I handed the 
book to him. He took it, turned a few leaves, and then 
came the questioning, which I had been looking forward 
to with fear and trembling. I was pretty familiar with 
Kirkham's grammar and noticed that he opened the book 
at any easy place, and where the answers as well as the 
questions were before him. He kept his eyes on the book 
as he proceeded to propound the following' questions: 
What is grammar? What is orthography? What is a 
noun? What is a verb? When I had answered the fore- 
going questions seemingly to the Colonel's satisfaction, 
he then proceeded to examine me in geography. His 
•questions were as follows: What is the name of the 
country we live in? What is the capital of the United 



66 MAHASKA COUNTY 

States? What is the longest river in the United States? 
What is an island? He asked another question or two 
about as difficult, and then seemed to think he had gone 
far enough to satisfy himself that I was qualified to teach. 
He wrote a note and sealed it, directed to "Thomas 
Smith, Esq.," handed it to me and told me to give that 
to Esquire Smith. He further said: "The 'Squire's 
daughter. Miss Jane Smith, taught our school last sum- 
mer and took her pay in farm produce, and if you will do 
the same, providing Esquire Smith is satisfied with your 
qualifications when you talk with him, I think we can 
give you a large school. Money is scarce and hard to 
obtain, and business is carried on here by exchanging 
one commodity for another. You can trade your produce 
to the merchants in Mt. Pleasant for dry goods. Every 
one of your patrons will agree to deliver the produce to 
any mercantile house you may designate in the town. 
There is plenty of farm produce but very little money in 
this region." 



REMINISCENCES. (57 



CHAPTER VII. 

We took leave of the McMillens, and as we were 
leaving the house Mr. Lyon, in a low tone remarked to 
me: "That examination was a stunner, wasn't itV' We 
mounted our horses and dashed across the prairie about 
a mile, to the residence of Esquire Smith, which was a 
respectable-looking hewed log house. We found the 
'Squire sitting by a cheerful log-heap lire. He met us 
with such cordial, smiling politeness that my fears were 
dispelled at once and I felt that he would be my friend. 
I handed him the letter I had brought from the Colonel, 
which he immediately proceeded to open and read. I 
watched the expression on his face as he read, and con- 
cluded it boded no ill to me. After he had finished read- 
ing the letter he bowed and smiled and went on to say: 
"The Colonel, I see, has examined you in the branches 
you propose to teach, and is satisfied that you are quali- 
fied to teach our school. I am willing to abide by his 
judgment, and don't think it necessary to question you 
farther. If you are willing to teach on the terms he sug- 
gested, we will consider the matter settled, and you may 



68 MAHASKA COUNTY 

begin teaching on the first day of April. I came to their 
terms, left the articles with Esquire Smith, and in a few 
days he sent me word that he had succeeded in getting 
twenty-eight scholars subscribed, and he thought several 
more would come in. I was to receive one dollar and 
fifty cents per scholar in produce. Esquire Smith thought 
the most of my patrons could pay in corn-meal at the 
market price in the town of Mt. Pleasant, and said pat- 
rons would deliver the same. In my talk with Esquire 
Smith he told me of a family living near the school-house 
who he felt sure would board me and take their pay in 
such things as I received for teaching. I was not well 
pleased with the kind of pay I was to receive, but having 
to make my own living I realized that I couldn't always 
have things just as I liked. I was glad to be employed 
to teach the school, even on those terms. 

I was too young then to analyze my thoughts, ideas, 
and desires, but I know now — I was honest, proud, ambi- 
tious, energetic, and to make a dollar any way but in a 
straightforward and honorable manner never entered my 
mind. Young as I was T had observed that there were 
few occupations a woman who had to make her living 
could engage in and be respected. A girl in those days 
who was supposed to be well enough educated, and was 
employed to teach, was considered worthy of a higher 
place socially than one who spun and wove and cooked 
and washed for people out of her own home. She may 
not have been more worthy, but "public opinion'' acted 
like she was. I was not afraid of spinning, nor cooking, 
nor washing, but I was afraid of that terrible tyrant, 
"public opinion." Of course I was greatly relieved and 



REMINISCENCES. 69 

pleased to have g-one through that dreaded examination 
with so little trouble, but I can't say that it g-ave me a 
very exalted opinion of the erudition of those school di- 
rectors. I think now they were about as much afraid of 
me as I was of them. Colonels and Esquires in those 
days were not always very scholarly. I was so giad it 
was all over that I went home with alig^ht heart and kind 
feeling-s toward everybody. But on the way Mr. Lyon 
would look at me in a quizzical way and say: "What did 
you say a noun was?" or "What did you say the capital 
of the United States was?" And when we reached Skunk 
River and were standing- in the river letting- our horses 
drink, he looked up and down the stream, then remarked: 
"The river is pretty low now." I said, "yes, but don't 
it g-et pretty hig-h sometimes?" "Yes," he said, "and I 
was just thinking that about the time your school will be 
out, the river in all probability will be up, and you can 
put all your farm produce on a flat-boat and send it down 
the river to New Orleans." I told him if he didn't stop 
making fun of me, as soon as we got to the top of the 
hill I would run off and leave him, for I knew my horse 
could outrun his. He replied: "I don't know about that, 
but our horses are tired, and I guess we had better not 
run a race until some other time, but I'll stop, if that is 
the way you take my suggestions." 

We rode on. talking about the merits of our horses, 
the pleasant trip we had had, and the beauties of the 
country, until we arrived at my home, where Mr. Lyon 
sprang from his horse, led my horse up to a stump and 
assisted me to alight. I didn't need any assistance but 
it was considered the polite thing to do that way. I in- 



70 MAHASKA COUNTY 

vited him to come in and take supper with us, but he 
declined. We stood and talked for a moment and I 
thanked him for his kindness to me, for I did consider 
that he had been a friend and I felt grateful. He re- 
marked that it had given him much pleasure and he had 
enjoyed the day, he thought, quite as much as I 
had. As he finished the last remark he sprang into his 
saddle and turned his horse's head as if to leave. I was 
just about starting to the house when he called me back, 
and with a very sober look said: "I have been thinking 
that the amount of truck you will have to dispose of will 
overstock the market in Mt. Pleasant, and you will be 
obliged to resort to the flat-boat, and in that case you 
will want a pilot, and I am. the man." At that he gave 
his horse a cut with his whip and went dashing off. Be- 
fore we retired that night I think I told my mother every- 
thing relating to that day's experience, not omitting the 
most trivial details. She was deeply interested, as she 
always was in everything which concerned me. 

The next day I went over to Wilson's and told them 
about it. Mr. Wilson said, "T know all the men in that 
neighborhood and if you were to hunt Iowa over you 
couldn't find a better." 

When the time came for me to begin my school, my 
friend Mr. Lyon proposed to go with me and see me 
safely landed at my boarding-place, Mr. Kesler's. I 
gladly accepted his kind offer, and we enjoyed another 
trip over prairies, woods, river, and creeks. He never 
once, the whole way, referred to * 'nouns", "capitals", 
nor "flat-boats". Esquire Smith had arranged every- 
thing in regard to my boarding. The Keslers received 



REMINISCENCES. 71 

me so kindly that I felt at home with them right away. 
Mrs. Kesler was a very energ-etic woman, a good house- 
keeper, and an excellent cook. She wanted to do much 
more for my comfort than I wanted her to do. Mr. 
Kesler was a gentle, quiet, unassuming man. He and 
his wife were both devout Methodists. The school-house 
was not more than forty rods from the Kesler home, and 
in one of the prettiest places I ever saw in Iowa. Just 
across the road was a camp-meeting ground in a beautiful 
grove of oak and hickory trees, and a gravelly, rocky 
little creek crossed the road only a few rods away. That 
place had been settled about ten years, and many of the 
first settlers were comfortably fixed for low^a. 

On Monday morning, the first day of April, 1844, I 
commenced my school. Mr. Kesler had made a fire in 
the stove, and when I went in I found a clean, pleasant 
looking school-house. It was a log house but was white- 
washed and had good windows and door, and for that day, 
good writing-desks and seats. The outlook was charm- 
ing. The grass was coming up all about, the trees were 
putting out, and that little brook so near that I could see 
it from the school-house door, and hear the water rippling 
over its gravelly bottom. 

In a little while the scholars began to come in. I 
think there were thirty the first day, their ages ranging 
from five to twenty-two years; some of them several 
years older than myself. My eighteenth birthday oc- 
curred while I w^as teaching that school. I soon discov- 
ered that none of them were far enough advanced to give 
me any uneasiness. I went to work with the determina- 
tion to do my very best to please the parents and instruct 



/2 MAHASKA COUNTY 

their children. If they were not pleased with my work 
they never let me know it. In a small way I followed 
Mr. Hoshour's plan of teaching', which was to instruct 
my pupils correctly in the rudiments, but not confine 
myself to text-books alone. I knew very little of ancient 
or modern history, but the little I did know I gave them 
the benefit of, which in my crude judg-ment would instil 
in them a taste for reading" and finding out things for 
themselves. 

All the families in that neighborhood were orderly, 
respectable and moral; nearly all members of some relig- 
ious denomination, and meetings were held nearly every 
Sunday in the school-house or at the camp-ground. That 
neighborhood was known far and near as the Brazelton 
neighborhood. The Brazeltons were the most prominent 
family therein, and seemed to be allied by blood or mar- 
riage to most of the elite of the town of Mt. Pleasant, 
the Wallaces, Sanderses, Porters and Paines. The Wal- 
laces, Henderson and Frank, I was told, were brothers of 
Governor Wallace, who was the first governor I remem- 
ber anything about in Indiana. They were tall, manly, 
distinguished-looking men. Henderson Wallace was a 
son-in-law of Colonel Samuel Brazelton. One of the San- 
derses was a brother-in-law. Alvin Sanders was a young 
unmarried man then, and kept a store of general mer- 
chandise in Mt. Pleasant. He was afterward Governor 
of Nebraska, and has the distinction of being the father- 
in-law of Russell Harrison. Alvin Sanders was a fine- 
looking man and a gentleman in every sense of the word. 
The eldest daughter of the house of Brazelton was the 
wife of Asberry Porter, a lawyer and leading politician 



REMINISCENCES. 73 

in Henry County. Nearly aill the men about Mt. Pleas- 
ant whom I have mentioned were politicians, and were 
"Whigs," and would have voted for Henry Clay if they 
had have had the chance. But Iowa was a Territory 
then. The Territorial Legislature and county offices 
engaged their attention at that time. I became acquaint- 
ed with those people and many others at the homes of 
the Brazeltons and Keslers. Both families entertained 
hospitably. I remember well the big fire-place in the 
Brazelton kitchen, with crane and hooks of every neces- 
sary length. What a lot of pots and kettles could be 
hung on that long crane, and be swung out and back 
again over the lire at the cook's pleasure! What splendid 
biscuit, salt-rising and corn bread could be baked on that 
big hearth in skillets and ovens with coals placed under- 
neath and on the lids! Great strong andirons to hold the 
wood in place. A strong pair of tongs and shovel stood 
against the jamb, and hooks for lifting pots, and hooks 
for lifting lids, hung on nails in convenient places. There 
were cooking stoves in that da3^ but I don't remember 
one in the Brazelton neighborhood. 

Not only religious services were held in the school- 
house, but every alternate Saturda}^ afternoon a young 
gentleman by the name of Shadel taught a singing school 
which was patronized by all the young people about there. 
We sang what was called "patent notes" and used books 
called "Mason's Sacred Harp" and "Methodist Har- 
monist." Two of Mr. Shadel's sons, Horace and Henry, 
are musicians and well known, not only in Oskaloosa but 
many other towns. These young men have the reputa- 



74 MAHASKA COUNTY 

tion of being- honorable men, and of possessing- much 
musical talent. 

I had no trouble with my scholars, and was treated 
with kindness by their parents and the young men and 
women of the neig-hborhood. I had what young- people 
call a "good time," until one day about two weeks before 
my school closed I received a letter saying- my mother 
was sick. I dismissed my school, borrowed a horse, and 
went to see her. I stayed with her three days, when she 
seemed so much better all thought she would be well in a 
few days. I went back and finished my school. A few 
of my patrons paid me in money, notwithstanding I had 
agreed to take all in "produce". One man I remember 
in particular, Mr. Heaton, who sent two lovely little 
girls, Sarah and Lottie, to my school. Mr. Heaton had 
a saw mill on Big Creek. He said: "I will pay you in 
money; I don't like to ask you to take lumber." With 
Mr. Kesler's kind assistance I managed to dispose of some 
of my assets in the shape of farm produce, but a con- 
siderable quantity was yet on my hands when my school 
closed. This residue consisted principally of corn meal. 
I was fortunate enough to trade it to Mr. Alvin Sanders 
for dry goods. I remember with what fear and trem- 
bling I approached Mr. Sanders when I went to his store 
to propose that exchange of commodities. When I had 
stated the amount of corn meal I wished to dispose of he 
looked a little surprised, hesitated at first, and intimated 
that he feared the amount of that commodity I wished to 
dispose of would more than meet the requirements of the 
citizens of Mt. Pleasant. I think he noticed my embar- 
rassment, and the kindness of his heart prompted him to 



REMINISCENCES. 75 

take the whole of it and take the chances of disposing- of 
it. I have always felt grateful to Mr. Sanders for that 
act of kindness. I was rejoiced and not at all surprised 
in after years to learn that he had "gone on to fortune 
and to fame." 



76 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER VIII. 

When I was about closing- my school and other busi- 
ness, word came to me that my mother was very sick. I 
went to her as quick as I could and found her very sick 
indeed. The Wilsons, as was their true nature, were and 
had been* doing" all they could for her comfort. One day 
the end came. She died in peace, even thoug^h it was in 
a wretched log cabin on a bare prairie, her children stand- 
ing- around her, frantic with g-rief. I can never forget 
the heart-broken sobs of my little brothers, Calvin and 
William. How dreary the world seemed when a little 
procession of those neighbors in farm wagons followed 
her one morning to the Friends' burying-ground at Sa- 
lem, where we stood by the grave until those kind people 
had thrown on the last spadeful of earth and shaped it 
into a mound over all that was mortal of our beloved 
mother. More than half a century the prairie grass has 
been growing, and the prairie winds have been singing a 
requiem over that humble grave. Generations have 
passed sway and other generations have come upon the 
scene and taken their places, since that day on which that 



REMINISCENCES. 77 

terrible truth, "My mother was dying!" flashed upon my 
mind; as the years go by, and that day in August which to 
me is apart from all other da3'^s in the year, I live over again 
that terrible experience. That sad scene with all its sur- 
rounding's is photographed on my memory, and has never 
faded out in all the years that have come and gone; that 
cabin with its dingy walls, the white home made counter- 
pane on my mother's bed, the locust tree before the door, 
with the breeze lifting up its leaves, my little brothers, 
helpless, weeping, and the faces of kind neighbors who 
wept with us, form a picture which time has not dimmed. 
My mother was a Christian and died rejoicing, though 
all around her were weeping. I am thirty years older 
than my mother was when the Lord took her to himself. 
I have read the writings of many authors who have given 
to the world what are supposed to be the best thoughts 
and ideas and teaching to young girls; have observed 
and thought much myself, but my mother's advice and 
counsel to me stands good to-da}^, and is what my best 
judgment approves. The principles she taught me are 
the principled which I try to instil into the mind of every 
young girl who comes under my influence. My mother 
was kind to the sick, and when she was sick and dying, 
kind people came to help and comfort her. 

Paton and Hannah Wilson have long been sleei)ing 
under the sod. If these lines ever fall into the hands of 
any of their children, grand-children, or great-grand- 
children, I want them to know that there is one at least 
who has never ceased to be grateful for the help and 
kindness shown her and hers in that time of sorrow. The 
Wilsons stand prominently in my memory, but they are 



78 MAHASKA COUNTY 

not all the noble-hearted people who have a warm place 
in my heart. There was a lovely Christian Quaker lady, 
Rachel Bond, whose words of tender sympathy and kind 
acts I have not forgotten. And Mr. Lyon, true to his 
kindly instincts, was ready and willing- to do anything in 
his power to lighten our grief. Mr. Lyon has always 
been held in grateful remembrance by me. The reader, 
if there ever is a reader of this story, may think there 
ought to be a sequel to Mr. Lyon's and my rather ro- 
mantic acquaintance, but there is no sequel. My story 
is without a plot, and is only an attempt to tell a straight- 
forward and true story of my recollections of long ago. 

After my mother was gone I soon realized that I 
could not afford to sit down and nurse my grief and be- 
moan my bereavement; something practical had to be 
thought of. The Wilsons, as the}^ had been doing all 
along, stood by us, and were planning a way to send me 
and my little brothers to our relatives in Indiana, when 
four days after my mother's death my uncle and aunt, 
Aaron and Delilah Cox, came. They had not heard of 
my mother's death until they reached that neighborhood. 
They had come with teams to take to the "New Pur- 
chase" a considerable portion of their household goods 
and other things, left when they moved in the Spring. 
They proposed different arrangements for us. That was 
before the days of telegraphy, and postal service was so 
poor and uncertain that to send a letter to the wilds of 
the "New Purchase" was a thing that one could have no 
assurance would ever reach its destination. 

When my uncle and aunt took in the situation they 
both, with one accord, offered me a home in their family, 



REMINISCENCES. 79 

and said they were sure the people in their settlement 
would emplo}'^ me to teach their children. At the same 
time it was arranged to send my little brothers to our 
relatives in Indiana. The parting from my little brothers 
added another pang to my great sorrow. I thought of 
course in some way I would see them again before a very 
great while : but when 1 saw them again they were young 
men and I was living in Oskaloosa, married, and had two 
little boys of my own. That good uncle and aunt did and 
said all they could to comfort me. They didn't seem to 
think they were making any sacrifice in taking me into 
their family, as one of their own children. I was too 
young and inexperienced in regard to the care of provid- 
ing for a family to full}^ appreciate their great kindness. 
In after years, when I had seen and learned more of the 
world, I looked back to that act of pure-hearted kindness 
with wonder and gratitude. 

My uncle had two wagns, one drawn by a pair of 
horses and the other by two yoke of oxen; both wagons 
were pretty well tilled. The ox wagon was what was 
called an old Pennsylvania wagon, with long bed ex- 
tending far out in front and back. That wagon was piled 
high with various things, among others a quantity of llax 
which had been broken in a flax-break, but not hacheled 
or swingled. Many families in that day raised flax; they 
broke it, swingled it, hacheled it, spun it and wove it by 
hand. In those days I was called a good spinner; I loved 
to spin flax and used to be an expert in spinning thread. 
They used to say that my verse in the Bible was a true 
proverb: "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her 
hands hold the distaff." — Prov. xxxi, 19. 



80 MAHASKA COUNTY 

I never enjoyed any work more than spinning tiaxon 
one of those little wheels we sometimes see now placed 
in a parlor or elegant guest chamber as a choice orna- 
ment. I had the pleasure in the winter (^f '44 and '45 of 
helping my aunt spin the flax that was brought to the 
"New Purchase" on that big Pennsylvania wagon. My 
uncle had provided a comfortable place for my aunt and 
me in the other wagon, but after we had traveled one day 
and reached what was erroneously called the "edge of 
civilization," I obtained leave of my uncle to ride on that 
pile of flax. It was up high in air and I had a charming 
view of that wide expanse of unbroken, green, waving, 
undulating prairie. After we had left Fairfield and gone 
a few miles west we realized that we were in a place 
where, as far as we could see, no long string of oxen with 
massive plow had ever turned a furrow. The tall blue- 
stem grass, the yellow and purple prairie blossoms were 
being swayed to and fro by the mild August breeze. We 
could see the Skunk River timber away off to the right 
of us, with now and then a point extending out toward 
that great mass of undisturbed grass and blossoms. The 
road had been traveled so little the grass was not worn 
out in it. Travelers had nothing to obstruct their way. 
They could drive just where they chose, though they 
kept along what was called "The Divide." By so doing 
they missed the few hills and hollows and sloughs they 
would have encountered near the timber. We traveled 
miles and miles without seeing any sign of a human hab- 
itation. After a while our road led us to one of those 
points of timber where was located a very poor looking 
log cabin and a few acres enclosed by a very poor fence. 



REMINISCENCES. 81 

About this cabin was a cluster of plum and crab apple 
trees which almost hid the cabin from view\ I might say, 
"A rural cot embowered 'neath nature's primeval foliage" 
but anything so poetical and romantic would be mis- 
leading. It wouldn't give one the true picture of that 
poor, crude cabin built in the brush, where was just 
enough cut down to make a place for said cabin. The 
crab apple and plum trees were all right in their native 
state, but with dead brush and sticks and chips all around 
and under them, the sight was not very inviting. A A^ery 
sour, unsociable looking woman was sitting before the 
cabin door, under one of those crab apple trees, spinning 
flax on a little wheel. My aunt and I walked up near her 
and spoke to her. She didn't stop spinning, just barely 
nodded to us. We asked her for water. Her only answer 
was, "You can get water over there in the slough," mo- 
tioning with her head the direction. We noticed a dim 
path leading that way, followed it and directly came to 
the slough, where we found a hole dug in the side, full of 
not very good water. It slaked our thirst though, and 
we went back and thanked her. She just nodded a very 
slight nod with the same sour look on her face, her feet 
keeping the same vigorous motions on the pedal of her 
wheel and her hands manipulating the flax. We made no 
more efforts to be sociable but went back to our wagons, 
climbed in and journeyed on. That was late in the after- 
noon. When night came we had reached another point 
w^here we camped. That was the last night before reach- 
ing my uncle's home. That last camping place I after- 
ward heard called "Waugh's Point". The next morning 
we were up and on our way a little after sunrise. I 



82 MAHASKA COUNTY 

climbed up on that big wagon, and from that elevated 
seat had an unobstructed view of that charming land- 
scape; that undisturbed great native meadow. Some 
groves could be seen off toward the Skunk river, and 
away over toward the Des Monies. Not a human habita- 
tion was to be seen ; not an animal, except occasionally 
in the distance we would see a deer or wolf scampering 
off toward one of those groves. 

The last morning of that journey, which I little 
thought would result in events and circumstances of so 
much importance to me, was one of those delightfully cool 
mornings which sometimes occur in August. I was seat- 
ed on my airy perch, taking in the never-tiring scene and 
breathing the fresh morning air, when suddenly a gen- 
tleman on horseback rode up beside the wagon. I recog- 
nized him in a moment as an acquaintance I had made 
while in the Brazelton neighborhood, Dr. Theodore Por- 
ter. I wondered if he wouldn't be amused at seeing me in 
so unromantic a situation. The doctor slackened his pace 
to suit the plodding gait of our oxen and kept by us for 
a mile or two, all the time treating me with as great def- 
erence as if I had been a princess mounted on a triumphal 
car. He told me he was going to locate in, or had located 
in the new town of Oskaloosa, and was surprised to see 
me on my way to that region. I asked him about the 
town and people, and in reply to my questions he said: 
"There are perhaps a dozen houses in the town, and as 
good a class of people coming in as you will find any- 
where. There is a family named Seevers, a Mr. Williams, 
a gentleman by the name of Edmondson, all first-class 
peo])le, and a family by the name of Phillips, who are all 



REMINISCENCES. 83 

sing"ers. I never heeird better vocal music than was made 
by the Phillips family." The doctor, after saying many 
more complimentary things about the people around Os- 
kaloosa, and expatiating on the beauty and natural ad- 
vantages of the country about the Narrows, and saying 
he would call on me in my new home in the near future, 
bade us good morning and started oft: on a brisk trot to- 
ward Oskaloosa. 

Our oxen, patient and plodding, kept on in the even 
tenor of their way, occasionally reaching out and snatch- 
ing a bite of blue-stem grass by the roadside. We came 
in sight of "White Oak Point,'' where my uncle said 
there were a few families settled; we couldn't see the 
houses, as we kept out on the ''divide," When we were 
not far from White Oak Point I looked away toward the 
west, or a little north of west, and saw what seemed to 
be a narrow gap between two points of timber. 1 called 
my uncle's attention to the scene, and asked him what 
that place was. He replied: "I was wondering if you 
had noticed that. That is 'The Narrows,' you have 
heard so much about, and that 'gap,' as you call it, is 
where Oskaloosa is located, but the houses are so few 
and little and the grass so high, you will have to get a 
good deal nearer than this before you can see it. The 
timber you see on your right hand is Skunk River timber 
and that on the left is Des Moines River timber. After 
going through 'The Narrows' the prairie widens out 
again and is interspersed with groves, and the country 
above is just as beautiful as this which you have been 
carrying on so about.'" 

When we were within three or four miles of my 



84 MAHASKA COUNTY 

uncle's place, he and my aunt began pointing- out places 
which loomed up in sight, and telling me who owned and 
lived at different groves — nobody had ventured far out on 
the prairie at that time. Away off to the southwest a 
beautiful grove stood out conspicuously and could be 
seen a long way oft'. "That," my uncle said, "is one of 
the finest places on that side of the prairie and belongs 
to a man by the name of Lewis Rhinehart." Another 
place which stood out "high and dry" was called the 
"Parker grove." Now it is the McKinley farm. We 
left that main drive and turning to the right into a track 
much less traveled, were directly in a region of prairie 
all interspersed with the most beautiful groves of droop- 
ing elms and lind trees. They were all surrounded with 
a border of crab apple and plum trees. My uncle, point- 
ing toward the north, said: "About two miles over in 
that direction is Skunk river, and on the bluff' is an Indian 
village called 'Kishkekash.' There are no Indians there 
now, but some of their bark huts are still there, and a 
family of white people by the name of Bean own a claim 
there and are living in one of those 'wigwams'." Pres- 
ently we began to see fields of corn and some very small 
and crude cabins tucked in the edges of the groves. My 
aunt remarked, ' 'Now we are getting into our settlement 
and I will show thee where some of our neighbors Ifve." 
Pointing to a grove to the east she said: "There is where 
Poultney Loughridge lives." Then pointing west she 
remarked: "Thee sees that big grove over there? That 
is where Thomas Stafford lives, and a little farther on his 
son Brantley lives. Brantley's wife, Rachel, is a relative 
of ours, Rachel's brother, Sammy Coffin, lives about 



REMINISCENCES. _ 85 

four miles west of our house. Our cousin, Dr. Seth 
Hobbs, lives about a mile and a half from our house, 
southwest.'' She kept on telling- me about their neigh- 
bors until we came to a cornfield where the road was 
along- the fence, and away at the end of the held and close 
to a body of timber was a cabin which we could plainly 
see as we drove along- the fence. I asked her whose field 
it was. She replied, "This is our field and that is our 
house." "Well," I said, "Aunt Delilah, I think you have 
the prettiest place of all." It was a pretty place and 
seemed so nicely located. There was beautiful timber to 
the west and north of their house, and the cabin was just 
out from the edg-e of the timber. Their field of corn just 
in roasting ear lay oft" toward the south. 

There was great joy in the family when we arrived. 
My cousins had seen us coming down the road and all 
came running to see their father and mother. They were 
surprised to see me, but welcomed me in a hearty, child- 
like way. But when Aunt Delilah said, "Aunt Mary is 
dead and Semira has come to live with us," joy was mixed 
with sorrow and tears came in our eyes. Uncle and aunt 
questioned the children about the way they had gotten 
along in their absence. They had all been well and noth- 
ing serious had happened. As we went toward the house 
we saw a young looking woman standing in the yard with 
a little child in her arms. My aunt shook hands with her 
and then introduced us in this wise: "Semira, this is our 
nearest neighbor, Amanda Martin; and Amanda, this is 
my niece, Semira Ann Hobbs." Aunt Delilah was a gen- 
uine Quaker of the old stamp and never said Mr., Mrs., 
nor Miss to anybody. I don't think iVunt Delilah ever 



86 MAHASKA COUNTY 

did but one thing- in her life which was forbidden by the 
discipline of her church, and that was ''to marry out of 
meeting'." I don't think anybody ever blamed her for 
that. If she had had her ])ick and choice of all the young 
Quakers in the State of Indiana, she could not have found 
a more pure-minded aiid honorable man for a husband 
than Aaron Cox. Both my uncle and aunt were exceed- 
ingly conscientious, just and honest. I had a home in 
their family for more than a year and was never made to 
feel that I was not welcome. They were quite as well 
fixed for living as any family in that new settlement. 
Their cabin had but one room, but that room was larger 
than cabins generally were. I think now it was eighteen 
feet wide and twenty feet long. I know they had in it 
four ordinary sized beds, and a trundle-bed which was 
kept under one of the big beds in the day time and drawn 
out at night for the children. The style of bedstead 
used then was so high from the floor to the bed rail that 
there was ample room under a bed to store many trunks 
and chests and boxes and bundles. It was customary to 
hang a valance around which hid all these unsightly 
things. Women in that day and stage of the country's 
history learned how to manage and utilize room. My 
uncle's cabin had a very large fire-place, six feet wide at 
least. That fire-place was built up, back and jambs with 
stone and mud. The top of the chimney was of mud and 
split staves or sticks. The floor was puncheon and the 
roof clap-boards. There was a door in the south, a small 
window in the west end by the fire-place, and another 
small window in the north. My aunt had a loom and all 
other necessaries for makinir cloth. While the weather 



REMINISCENCES. 87 

was warm the loom was kept in a shed at the back of the 
house. That shed had a clap-board roof, and the floor 
was of elm tree bark laid flat on the ground with the 
roug-h side up. My uncle and aunt were both good man- 
agers and could make the best of their crude surroundings. 
They had plenty in the wilderness. 

They had moved to this place in March and the time 
I am talking about was August. They had to go a long 
way to procure flour and corn-meal: I think the nearest 
mill was in Jefferson County. My uncle and aunt and 
every child that was old enough were workers, and had 
raised a splendid garden. That fresh, new, mellow soil 
without a single weed, would produce a crop without 
much tending; they had cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, 
beans, and had the only sweet potatoes around there. 
All through the cornfield the ground was yellow with 
pumpkins; m}^ aunt had not neglected to bring a supply 
of garden seeds when they came in the Spring. About a 
dozen rows of corn nearest the house were hanging full 
of beans of the "cut short" variety. Besides the neces- 
sary and useful, my cousins, Eliza Ann and Elizabeth, 
had a bed of old-fashioned flowers — marigolds, four- 
o'clocks, larkspurs, touch-me-nots, and some morning- 
glory vines running up strings by the cabin door. Fruit 
was the thing missed most, and if my aunt had not 
brought a quantity of dried apples we would have been 
without. Blackberries grew in the woods about there, 
but at the time I am talking about the blackberry season 
was over. Crab-apples were plenty, but sugar was a lux- 
ury both scarce and dear, and crab-apples even in that 
day wei'e not greatly relished without being sweetened. 



88 MAHASKA COUNTY 

My aunt, and I presume most of her neig'hbors, had a lit- 
tle sugar carefully put away to be used only in emergen- 
cies, but we got along very well without sugar. My 
uncle kept four cows and we had more milk and butter 
than we could use. There was no market anywhere in 
reach, and what we couldn't use was given to the pigs. 
I remember how lavishly my aunt would put butter in 
everything she cooked, especially her roasting-ear pud- 
dings. One of Aunt Delilah's roasting-ear puddings, 
spread all over with the kind of butter she made, was a 
whole meal itself. We had one of those puddings every 
night for supper as long as the roasting-ears lasted. 

My uncle, as I have said, was not a member of any 
religious denomination, but had a profound res])ect for 
sacred things, especially for my aunt's views and strict 
adherence to the customs of the church of which she was 
a member. We never sat down to our meals, no matter 
how plain, without observing the little spell of silent 
reverence practiced among Friends. I had been brought 
up among Friends, or Quakers, and knew all about their 
habits, but at that time and for a long time after, I had 
never heard a vocal grace at one of their tables. But 
all Friends who were worthy of the name observed the 
custom of bowing their heads in silent reverence and 
thanksgiving to God before partaking of their meals. 
No long and devout utterance of vocal prayer and thanks- 
giving at table ever seemed more solemn to me than the 
silent grace of the Quakers. When they buried their 
dead they stood solemnly around the grave, not shunning 
the heart-piercing sound of clods falling on the coffin-lid, 
but waitnig until the last spadeful of earth was placed 



REMINISCENCES. 89 

and fashioned into a smooth, shapely mound by some 
kind and sympathetic neighbor who, when the last gentle 
pat was given, would quietly step back, and leaning on 
his spade, would wait with the others the few moments 
of reverent, solemn silence which always followed the 
burial of their dead. 

The people in that neighborhood were nearly all mem- 
bers of some religious denomination, or had a member- 
ship before they carn,e, but no church had been organized 
nor any religious meetings held. The Staft'ords, the 
Stanleys, the Arnolds, and my aunt Delilah, were 
Quakers. The Martins (H. P., usually called Patterson), 
and Silas, his brother, and their wives, were members of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Poultney Lough- 
ridge and family were United Presbyterians. Several 
denominations were represented, but only a few repre- 
sented any one. But however their religious tenets may 
have differed as neighbors, they dwelt together in har- 
mony. They were kiad and helpful to each other and 
hospitable to strangers. There seemed to be no such 
feeling as jealousy, nor any disposition to take advantage 
of each other. Every one of those families owned a good 
claim and had obtained them honestly. 



90 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER IX. 

A time was appointed, May 1st, 1843, when men were 
allowed to come in and select claims. One man might 
hold a claim embracing- half a section. There were four 
men, Poultney Loughridge. John McAllister, Edwin and 
Robert Michell, all related either by blood or marriage, 
who came a little before the time, but made friends both 
with the Indians and dragoons. They selected four 
claims, without designating who should be the possessor 
of any particular one. All those claims had both timber 
and prairie and were thought by them to be about equal 
in value. When they were surreptitiously "spying out 
the land" they cut a set of house-logs; they did not go 
to sleep on the night of April 30th, in '43, but the moment 
the hands of somebody's watch pointed to the hour of 
twelve, they gathered up their stakes and torches and be- 
fore daylight on the morning of the first of May their 
claims were all staked or blazed out. Then they drew 
lots and every man drew the very claim he wanted. That 
same day (May 1st, '43) they made of those logs so 
stealthily cut a cabin on Mr. Loughridge's claim, which 



REMINISCENCES. 91 

was said to be the first house ever built in Maliaska 
County. My uncle, in the fall of '43, bought Mr. John 
McAllister's claim, which had on it the cabin I have men- 
tioned. The land on which that immense crop of pump- 
kins grew amidst a forest of corn was broken in '43. My 
uncle had broken another lot of ground in the spring 
which had produced a big crop of what was called "sod 
corn." And such a crop of turnips! big and juicy and 
tender and sweet. I wonder why we never have such 
turnips nowV I came near forgetting to mention the 
melons. My uncle had a patch of watermelons, and 
muskmelons of the nutmeg variety. If one just threw 
the seed away on that rich, clean, mellow ground, a big 
crop would come of it. My uncle was a man who pro- 
vided for his family, and my aunt was one of the women 
"who looked well to the ways of her household." They 
had an interesting family. Eliza Ann, the eldest, was a 
staid and steady girl, practical, and not given to joking. 
She was a blond, with an abundance of golden brown 
hair which laid in wavy ripples all over her head without 
the aid of any device in the way of crimping apparatus. 
Eliza Ann and I got on well together, were always good 
friends. She was a serious, matter-of-fact sort of a girl, 
the kind that the neighbors all have a word of praise for. 
Elizabeth was my bosom friend. Her faults were few 
and her virtues many. She was what in these days would 
be called a bright girl. She grew to be a bright woman, 
and to-day is one of the brightest women I know. To me 
she is a "joy forever." 

In a short time I became acquainted with some of the 
neighbors. I soon became quite good friends with the 



92 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Martins — Patterson and Amanda, as we called them. 
They were young people then, had only been married two 
or three years, and had one baby, Mary, who is Mrs. 
Matt. Crozier and a grandmother now. Patterson and 
Amanda had come in the summer of '43, They had a 
claim adjoining my uncle's, and were living on that claim 
in a little cabin about a quarter of a mile north in the 
woods. They were very kind to me from the first. Many 
pleasant little visits 1 had with them in their humble 
cabin. I think it was the very first Sunday after I came 
to my uncle's that Patterson and Amanda came along in 
the early afternoon and told us that Mr. Loughridge had 
given out word among the neighbors that any who wished 
to do so could come to his house and hold some kind of 
religious meeting. I ran in, put on my straw bonnet, and 
joined the Martins. We walked across my uncle's field, 
climbed a staked and ridered fence, and then came into a 
dim road which led toward Mr. Loughridge's house, which 
was that "first cabin" and in appearance much like all 
other cabins about there. One room with all the appur- 
tenances for cooking, eating, and sleeping, and arranged 
about as snugly as possible. When Mr. Martin introduced 
me, Mr. and Mrs. L. shook hands with me cordially, and 
made some pleasant remarks about my being a new addi- 
tion to the community. We sat and waited awhile but 
nobody else came. Mr. Loughridge read a chapter from 
the Bible and Mrs. Loughridge had in her hand a book of 
Psalms. She led in singing, and as the Martins and my- 
self were not familiar with their kind of singing, she and 
Mr. L. had it all to do. When they had sung, Mr. L. said, 
"Let us pray.'' We all knelt and Mr. L. prayed. They 



REMINISCENCES. 93 

sang another Psalm and then Mr. L. asked Mr. Martin to 
pray. Mr. Martin prayed, while we all knelt again. That 
ended the services. 

Mr. Loughridge was a tall, broad-shouldered, manly, 
honest-looking man, with what is called red, or "sandy" 
complexion; Mrs. L's complexion was much like her hus- 
band's, but not quite so dark. All their children had 
complexions mc^re or less like their parents. The Lough- 
ridges were worthy and substantial citizens. The chil- 
dren of these worthy people, some of them grand-parents 
long ago, have done honor to the covenenter stock from 
which they sprnag. Two of their sons are ministers. 
Albert, the baby, born in that crude and humble cabin, 
has spent years as a Christian missionary in India. 

Not long after the time I have been telling about, 
two or three more families of Quakers settled in that 
neighborhood, and some time in the Autumn of '44 those 
Quakers met at the house of Thomas Stafford and organ- 
ized themselves into a "meeting," and for many months 
met every Sunday at Thomas Stafford's house and held 
their meetings of silent worship. There was no minister 
among them. I often attended those meetings, where 
not a word was spoken, but all sat for one hour in silent 
meditation. 

Thomas Staff'ord was the rich man of the neighor- 
hood. I have heard it said, and presume it is true, that 
he was worth more money than any man in the county; 
that is, he had mere actual cash. I was told by persons 
who were supposed to know, that he received eighteen 
thousand dollars in cash for his farm in Tippecanoe 
County, Indiana, and had all that money at his disposal 



94 MAHASKA COUNTY 

when he came to the "New Purchase" in '43. Eighteen 
thousand dollars seemed an immense sum then. It was 
a foundation for an immense fortune in a country of such 
possibilities as this country possessed at that time. 
Thomas Stafford and wife were elderly people then; their 
family of nine children were all g^rown and all married 
but two, William and Elam. William w^as married in the 
Spring of '45 to Eliza Stanley. Elam was the Dr. Staf- 
ford whom everybody in this country knows. He mar- 
ried Sallie Stanley, sister to Eliza, William's wife. Those 
Stanley girls were daughters of John Stanley, a Quaker, 
who owned and lived on a very line farm, or claim, near 
the "deserted village" of Kishkekash, on the bluffs of 
Skunk River. Mr. Stanley had two other daughters, 
Edith and Ann, now Mrs. Conner and Mrs. Gray. Eliza 
died many years ago. Every one of them were excellent 
women. 

I had been at my uncle's several days, and had n(jt 
seen my other relatives, Dr. Seth Hobbs and his wife 
Elizabeth. The doctor had made, or bought a claim in 
'43, built a cabin, decided to make that his home, practice 
medicine, and at the same time improve his land. The 
doctor, in the Spring of '44, went back to his old home 
in Southern Indiana, married "the girl he left behind 
him," and brought her to his cabin in the wilderness. 

Aunt Delilah and I decided one day to visit these 
relatives. We had a pleasant walk and a pleasant talk 
along the road. They called it a mile and a quarter. The 
road or path, part of the way, was along a ravine with 
woods on one side and a little prairie or glade on the 
other. Golden rod and thousands of other yellow bios- 



REMINISCENCES. 95 

soms lined the path. The path looked strange and I re- 
marked to my amit: ''This is a fmmy road, so narrow 
and worn down so deep." Aunt Delilah laughed and said: 
"Why, child! I forgot to tell thee: we are in a regular 
Indian trail. This was their main trail from their village 
on Skunk river to another village on the Des Moines, and 
the reason the track is so narrow and worn is that they 
always ride their ponies single file, no matter how many 
they string out, one after another, and keep in the same 
track. This trail has been traveled by Indians nobody 
knows how long." When we started, aunt said, "Semira, 
we had better take a good-sized, strong stick, for we 
might come onto a rattlesnake; they are plentiful about 
here." We armed ourselves with sticks but had no occa- 
sion to use them, for we didn't see a snake the entire 
way. Our cousins lived in the woods but had a field 
cleared and fenced, wherein was growing a luxuriant 
crop of corn and vegetables. The doctor and his wife 
seemed overjoyed to see us — and how happy and con- 
tented they were! The doctor was a carpenter, along 
with his other accomplishments, and had made their cabin 
look very cozy and comfortable. The puncheon floor was 
fitted neatly at the joints; and on one side of the room 
was a lot of shelves, very neatly put up, and filled with 
the doctor's bottles and medicine jars. There were more 
little home-made, convenient things in that cabin than 
any I saw. The doctor's taste ran in that way and his 
wife was like him. They both had the faculty of making 
the most and best of everything about them. Elizabeth 
had a big pine box for a cooking table, placed in a way to 
use the inside for her cooking utensils; had a calico 



96 MABASKA COUNTY 

curtain hung in front of said box; some shelves in a cor- 
ner for her dishes; wooden hooks placed here and there 
on the wall and about the fire-place to hang things on. 
They had two beds, and like the others around there util- 
ized the space underneath to stow away trunks, boxes, 
and bundles. The doctor had nearly all the practice for 
many miles around, for he was the only doctor there was 
in that region. There was a Dr. Boyer, who lived ten or 
twelve miles away on the Des Moines river, who doctored 
ague patients on that river, while Dr. Hobbs dosed out 
Peruvian bark to the ague afflicted on the Skunk. Dr. 
Porter had just come to the newly located county seat, 
Oskaloosa. Dr. Hobbs knew something about nearly 
everybody in the country. The doctor's wife and I 
planned to go on horseback some day to Oskaloosa. To- 
ward evening aunt and I went home along the Indian 
trail, after having spent a pleasant day. 

I hadn't been in that neighborhood long, when Uncle 
Aaron began talking to his neighbors about building a 
school-house and employing me to teach. Nearly every 
family anywhere near who had children old enough to go 
to school fell in with my uncle's proposition, which was 
to meet on an appointed day and build a cabin, similar to 
the other cabins about, and have me teach school in it. 

My cousins. Dr. Hobbs and wife, made it so pleasant 
for me ^it their house that I visited them often. The 
doctor was an educated man and had a fund of general 
information. He attended medical lectures at Lexington, 
Ky. He knew Henry Clay and his family, and was often 
at their home, ''Ashland." I used to make the doctor 
tell about their library, their dining-room, their grounds, 



R*]MINISCENCES. 97 

and iust what kind of looking" people Mr. and Mrs. Clay 
were. Henry Clay encourag"ed the young" medical students 
to visit him. He would invite them into his library, and 
there set them at their ease by his tact and g-enuine g-ood 
breeding. Then he would branch off on some subject 
both instructive and entertaining". One day when I was 
at the doctor's his wife, Elizabeth, and I made all our ar- 
rang"ements to visit the new county seat. The doctor 
had been there often, but his wife and I had never seen 
the town. My uncle had a handsome black horse called 
"Phillis'' and Aunt Delilah w^as the possessor of a side- 
saddle. They g"ave me the privileg"e of using" that horse 
and saddle as often as necessary. 

On the appointed day. w^hich was the 14th of Septem- 
ber, 1844, I rode Phillis over to the doctor's. The doctor 
had a very g"ood horse which he saddled for his wife. We 
dressed ourselves in pretty good style and early in the 
afternoon were ready to mount our steeds and be off. 
The doctor being" a gallant gentleman, went out in front 
of the fence where a big stump stood handy and assisted 
us to mount. After we were seated in our saddles, the 
doctor seemed to think there might be something" not al- 
together safe, so he took hold of my horse's bridle, ex- 
amined the throat-latch, then examined the surcingle, 
thought it not quite tight enough and drew it up another 
notch; then, giving my horse a gentle stroke dowai his 
mane, and ending by stri})ping his foretop through his 
hand, he went over the same performance with his wife's 
horse. After the doctor had adjusted our surcingles and 
bridles to his satisfaction, he then proceeded to give us 
directions how to find Oskaloosa. He pointed to a dim 



98 MAHASKA COUNTY 

road which led out south a little way (w^e couldu't see 
far ahead in the timber) and then he began: ''Now, girls, 
after you cross that slough turn to the right, follow along 
where you see the trees blazed, and pretty soon you will 
come to a road where people have been hauling rails and 
wood; keep on that road until you come to a creek, where 
you will see some logs lying lengthwise in the creek as a 
kind of bridge; go slow and you will get over all right; 
after you have crossed the creek (which is about dry 
now) keep straight on the plainest road you see, which 
will take you through timber a half a mile or so; when 
you have gotten to the top of the hill after crossing the 
creek, you can then begin to see the open prairie; just 
ketp on until you come to a road v/hich looks like it had 
been traveled a good deal; that road is right on the 
divide; when j^ou come to that road turn to the right, 
and be sure you keep in the main track, and when you 
have gone about two miles you will have reached the 
town of Oskaloosa. You will find two stores in.Oskaloosa. 
One has a red flannel cloth hanging, out by the door, and 
the other has a sign (m the top with the word 'Grocery' 
on it." 

We followed the doctor's directions and found every- 
thing, trees blazed, logs thrown in the bottom of the 
creek which had very little water in it, and all just as he 
had told us. When v*^e reached the prairie and that 
much- traveled road, and turned to the right, no town 
was in sfght, so vv^e rode on and talked, and admired the 
charming scenery all about us. I was looking at some 
beautiful groves over south, when my companion sudden- 
ly threw up her hands and exclaimed, "Oskaloosa!" 



REMINISCENCES. 99 

We stopped, sat on our horses and gazed. I think we 
were near where Mr. William Burnside now lives when 
we made the discovery. I had seen many crude and in- 
significant-looking- towns, but Oskaloosa was the crudest 
and the poorest looking town T ever saw. The country 
all around was all that could be desired in prairie, lying 
high and dry, tall grass waving, and the most beautiful 
groves here and there, looking like they were just invit- 
ing people to come and live in them. We saw one log 
house some little distance to the right of the road which 
we afterward learned was Mr. Alfred Seevers'. There 
was another log house over to the left which was daring 
enough to stand on the bare prairie without a single tree 
within a half mile. This place seemed to be about a mile 
from the little cluster of cabins called Oskaloosa. That, 
we w^ere informed, was Mr. James Seevers' place. After 
we had discovered Oskaloosa we sat and gazed at it for 
perhaps five minutes. How squatt}^ those little bits of 
cabins looked, with not a thing to relieve the barrenness 
except the tall blue-stem grass. From some of them 
could be seen smoke issuing from a joint of stovepipe 
protruding through a clapboard roof. The doctor had 
told us how we would know the business houses. He 
said: ''You will, on first going into town, see a small log 
house with a red flannel cloth hanging out by the door. 
That is Smith & Cameron's store. A little farther over 
you will see a cabin with a sign on top, fastened to a 
weight-pole, on which is painted in large letters the word 
'Grocery.' That establishment is owned by the Jones 
Brothers & Grossman." 

As we sat gazing at the prospect before us, I counted 



Vf 



100 MAHASKA COUNTY 

the houses. It wasn't hard to do, for every house stood 
out distinctly from every other house. There were just 
fifteen of those rude dwellings and business places on 
September 14, 1844. We came in town from a south- 
easterly direction and kept looking- for that red flannel 
sign. Didn't see it at first, as we came in on the wrong 
side of the house. That house, Smith & Cameron's, was 
on lot one, block tw^enty-eight, old plat. Its front was 
toward the square, wdiere there was a great log elevated 
on forks or posts, with many big wooden pegs driven into 
it in a convenient way for hitching horses. As we entered 
the town we saw no human being, man, woman, or child, 
but as we rode up to the store and just around the corner, 
where we could see that flaming scarlet sign, a gentleman 
came out of the store door. My first thought on seeing 
that gentleman was, ''What a splendid looking man, and 
what a poor little town!" He w^as, I thought, as fine a 
looking specimen of young manhood as I had ever seen. 
He was tall, with stately bearing, handsome and distin- 
guished looking. He came toward us, bowed and smiled, 
led our horses up to a big box of lime (I could see the 
lime through the cracks), assisted us to alight, and then 
invited us to walk into the store. He led our horses to 
that hitching place, threw the bridles over some of those 
pegs, and then harried into the store. He was making 
an effort to display some of the w^ares offered for sale in 
the store, when another gentleman came in at the back 
door. The first gentleman immediately gave up his ef- 
forts to show goods and turned all over to the second 
gentleman, who w^e were soon made to understand was 
one of the projn-ietors. I bought a pair of shoes which 



UEMINiSCENCKS. 101 

I thought would be the kind to walk over hazel stubs 
with, my companion made some purchases, and then we 
walked over to the other mercantile house with the sign 
of "Grocery" on top. That house stood on lot six, block 
twenty, old plat. Neither of those houses carried a very 
heavy stock of goods, but quite enough to supply the de- 
mand. We left the town without knowing the names of 
any of the three gentlemen we had met. 

But when we told the doctor about our adventures 
and described the gentlemen to him, he could tell us just 
who they were. "That line looking young man whom 
you met lirst is Mica j ah T. Williams: he is a lawyer and 
clerk of the court. The one you dealt with is Leper 
Smith, one of the proprietors; his family lives in one of 
those little cabins. The man you saw at the sign of 
'Grocery' was Mr. A. D. Jones, another lawyer, not one 
of the proprietors, but another Jones altogether." We 
asked the doctor how those lawyers came to be clerking 
in those stores. "O," he said, "I can explain that easy 
enough. You see, they have come to Oskaloosa to lo- 
cate, and the place is so new, and accommodations for 
any who have not come prepared to take care of them- 
selves is so poor, they have to do any way they can. 
Those young lawyers make the stores their stopping 
places through the day. They get their meals and a place 
to sleep in some of those cabins amongst the families. 
They will all divide their last bit of corn bread with a 
young fellow who wants to locate in the town." 

The doctor had bought some lots in the town and liad 
been there often and knew nearly everybody. At the 
first sale of lots in Oskaloosa Dr. Hobbs bouglit lot 3, 



102 MAHASKA COUNTY 

block 28, o. p., which is on the south side of the square. 
He also bought lots 5 and 6, block 17, o. p., which is now 
the elegant home of Major McMullin 

By the middle of September, 1841, there were a good 
many families settled about all through Mahaska County. 
Over on the Des Moines River and on the six mile prairie 
were the Boyers, the DeLashmutts, the Wilsons and the 
Nortons. Up north and west along the Skunk River 
timber were the Coffins, Samuel and John; the Troys, 
the Pad gets, the Liters, and about the "centre," just 
north of Oskaloosa, were the Springers, the Bonds, the 
Rolands, the Ewings, and not far southeast of the centre 
was a numerous family by the name of McMurray. Mr. and 
Mrs. McMurray had five sons and three daughters, nearly 
all grown and none married. Different denominations 
were represented. The Cumberland Presbyterians 
seemed to predominate. The McMurrays were Cumber- 
land Presbyterians. Smith & Cameron, of the store with 
the red flag, and several others in and around Oskaloosa 
were members of that church. The McMurrays had 
come from Illinois in '43, had lived in a little cabin like 
the others, but at the time I am speaking of had just fin- 
ished a hewed log house, and while it was brand new and 
the weather was pleasant they proposed to hold an all- 
day meeting on Sunday, September 15th. They sent 
away down to Jefferson, or Van Buren County, for a 
noted minister whom they called "Uncle Johnny Berry." 
The McMurrays managed to send word to all parts of 
the county that there would be meeting at their house on 
tliat day. My friends, Patterson and Amanda Martin, 
invited me to go with them to that meeting. They were 



REMINISCENCES. 103 

g-oing- in an ox-wagon, and if I would accept a seat in 
that humble vehicle they w^ould be happy to have me do 
so. I gdadly accepted their kind offer, and when Patter- 
son and Amanda and little ''Mary" came along that Sun- 
day morning" they found me dressed in my black silk 
dress, straw bonnet and long black lace veil. 

I supposed I would see the greater part of the inhab- 
itants of Mahaska County there that day, and for that 
reason I wanted to make as good an appearance as possi- 
ble. I wondered if the people generally would go in ox 
wagcms. I thought a g"Ood many would, as people rode 
about in this new place in any kind of rig they happened 
to have. They were not very particular about the kind 
of a team they drove, or vehicle they rode in. If the 
team was gentle and the wagon strong, that w^as all they 
required. Those clumsy wagons and ox teams were in- 
dispensable in opening up a new country. I think very 
few of those men and women who had come with the pur- 
pose of making homes in the wilderness, came wdth any 
thought of being dissatisfied, disgusted, or surprised at 
the most commonplace and crude way of living and trav- 
eling about. It seemed to be the natural order of things; 
the people accepted it and went on. I don't think Pat- 
terson, Amanda, little Mary or I felt any twinges of pride 
worry us, or thouglit seriously of the fitness or unfitness 
of things as we sat in those splint-bottom, straight-backed 
chairs in that long wagon bed. 

As we slowly moved along near that Indian trail 
through groves and glades and little native meadows, 
our thoughts were of the great number of strange people 
we were likely to see at that meeting. Y7e hoped also to 



104 MAHASKA COUNTY 

enjoy the preaching", shiging, and praying. The Martins 
had not had any such privileg-e of worship for months. 1 
was glad of any kind of a meeting' to go to. Tliough our 
oxen were of the patient, well behaved kind, they would, 
as we passed throug-h masses of yellow and purple blos- 
soms and long- stemmed grass, reach out and snatch a 
mouthful of the tempting- stuft" occasionally, in spite of 
Mr. Martin's gentle taps with the ox-gad and his "wo 
haw. Buck!" and ''gee, Brin!'' The distance was not 
great, only two and one-half miles, and we were among 
the first to arrive. The McMurrays, who had a house 
full of grown sons, and who were polite and accommo- 
dating, took us in the new log house and gave Amanda 
and I some very comfortable seats. They had jirovided 
seats for a large number of people. There were two beds 
in the room and a table for the minister with a Bible and 
Hymn Book on. The balance of the space in the new log 
house was filled with benches made of jDuncheons. The 
one Amanda and I occupied was placed along the side of 
a bed, which made a comfortable back to lean against, 
and besides that, was so placed that we could see every 
one who came in without more than turning our heads a 
little. The people kept coming in, and in a few minutes 
the house was about full. I could see that the yard was 
full. Among the early comers who procured a seat in the 
house was Micajah Williams, the distinguished looking 
young man whom I had seen the day before, and who had 
treated the other young lady and myself with such Ches- 
terfieldian politeness. Mr. Williams brought with him a 
young lady whom I had not seen. She, I thought, was 
one of the handsomest girls I ever saw. Her complexion 



REMINISCENCES. 105 

was fair as fair could be, with just enoug"h piuk in her 
cheeks. Her eyes were blue, her hair a lig-ht brown, and 
her mouth was simply perfect, while her form was lithe 
and willowy. Persons who read this may think I am ex- 
aggerating, but if anybody who knew Mica j ah Williams 
and Virginia Seevers in '44 ever reads this, they will say, 
"She is telling the. truth.'' I sat there and wondered 
how two such elegant and charming looking young people 
ever happened to find each other out in this almost un- 
broken wilderness. 

Presently another person of somewhat striking ap- 
pearance stepped in the door and stood a few moments as 
if looking for a seat, when some one made room for him 
just by the door. As he stood in the door I glanced him 
up and down, and in much less time than it takes me to 
write it, I decided in my mind that he w^as a young man 
of the sort which suited my taste. He was a little less 
than six feet high, well formed, symmetrically built, and 
graceful in his movements. Had dark brown hair, a little 
inclined to curl, large gray eyes, an honest and fearless 
expression about his face. • He was what I thought a 
manly looking young man. 

In the meantime the ministers and others were pre- 
paring to begin the services. The McMurray boys were 
all members of the church, and were prominent singers 
in meetings like that. They gathered about the preach- 
ers, who w^ere on the other side of the room from where 
I sat, and watched the people come in. Directly they be- 
gan singing that good old hymn, "Coronation,'" and were 
making it fairly ring. My attention at first was attracted 
to their singing, but liearing the most charming, soft, 



lOB MAHASKA COUNTY 

mellow bass I had ever heard, I looked around and per- 
ceived that those mellow tones were made by the voice 
of my g"ray-eyed champion. There was more singing and 
more listening by me to that mellow bass; more admiring 
beautiful Virginia Seevers and that young "Apollo," 
Micaiah Williams. 

There was a very respectable looking congregation. 
They seemed to have gone down into their boxes and 
chests and drawn out their old-fashioned finery, shaken 
it, brushed it, and donned it for the occasion, Mr. Berry 
preached, Mr. Jolly prayed, and the congregation sang, 
led by the McMurrays. The forenoon services were 
ended, and a recess of two hours was announced, the 
congregation being dismissed with an earnest invitation 
to attend the afternoon meeting. The McMurrays invited 
Mr. and Mrs. Martin and myself to take dinner with 
them and we accepted the kind invitation. As soon as 
the meeting was out 1 walked out in the yard, and was 
surprised to see so many people all through the grove. 
Horses and oxen were hitched everywhere, and there 
were a great many heavy lumber wagons. I had expected 
to see a good many people, but not quite such a crowd. 
They soon began to disperse. Among others, I saw that 
young "Apollo'' and the beautiful Virginia mount their 
steeds and go flying off over the prairie toward Oskaloosa. 
I met my old acquaintance, Dr. Porter, and had a friendly 
interview with him. He seemed to know a good many of 
the people. I asked him who that beautiful young lady 
was with Mr. Williams. He said, "She is Miss Seevers, 
daughter of Mr. James Seevers, who lives about a mile 
southeast of town. I have not made her acquaintance, 



REMINISCENCES. 107 

but she is a beauty, isn't she?'' I asked who that young 
g-entleman was, designating- the one with the line bass 
voice. "Oh!" he said, ''Do you remember the Phillips 
family I told you about the morning I overtook you away 
down the road?" "Yes, I remember." "Well," he went 
on to say, "That is Mr. Gorrell Phillips, the eldest son 
of A. G. Phillips. The family live adjoining town, or 
where we expect to have a town. They are edl singers, 
and we think are about right generally." In walking 
about the grounds surrounding the McMurray home, I 
met a handsome, well dressed young woman with a baby 
in her arms. Se had beautiful yellow hair, brown eyes, 
a clear complexion, and was nice looking generally. I 
went up to her and engaged in conversation. We were 
all sociable and didn't stand on ceremony then, and I told 
her who I was and she told me that she was Mrs. John 
White, and lived about a mile north of Oskaloosa. Her 
baby's name, she said, was "Anestatia." She invited me 
to visit her. I thanked her and assured her that I would 
do so if the opportunity ever came. 

The cabin which had formerly been the sole residence 
of the McMurray family was near the hewed-log house, 
and was used now as kitchen and dining room. It had, 
like others of its kind, a very w^ide fire-place, where the 
cooking was done. Sarah McMurray was the young lady 
of the family and was a "host within herself." That 
day, with very little assistance, she prepared and served 
an excellent dinner to at least twenty persons besides 
their own family. I wondered then, and have wondered 
ever since, at the grace and ease with which she fed that 
multitude. To watch her seat one table full after another. 



108 MAHASKA COUNTY 

and bring" on such bountiful supplies of good, wholesome 
food, one would have thought there was no end to her re- 
sources. Cooking for a multitude by a log heap fire in 
one of those wide fire-places may now, I think, be reck- 
oned one of the "lost arts." That was my first acquaint- 
ance with Sarah McMurray, but not by any means the 
last. I knew her well for many years. She w^as as capa- 
ble of entertaining a room-full at repartee as she was of 
serving a dinner to a multitude under difficnlties, and as 
ready to minister to the sick w4th fevers as she was to in- 
dulge in repartee. She not only relieved her mother of 
all household cares and made all her own handsome 
dresses (she did have handsome, nice-fitting dresses even 
then), but prepared dainties, cleaned up the cabins, cut, 
made, and mended the clothes for the children of sick 
mothers down on the Skunk river bottom. 

The afternoon meeting at Mc Murray s was not so 
well attended as that in the morning, but there was a 
good audience of quiet, earnest, well-behaved people. 
Mr. Jolly preached, and one good old Christian lady whom 
the McMurrays called "Aunt Polly Mathews," became 
so happy during the meeting she shouted for joy. When 
that meeting ended, we again seated ourselves in our 
splint-bottomed chairs in that long wagon, after having 
bidden good-bye and thanked the McMurrays for their 
kind and hospitable treatment. "Buck" and "Brin," 
those patient yoke -fellows, seemed to have spent the day 
in quiet contentment, chained to a sapling, in the shade 
near the outskirts of the grove. They had not, while the 
rest of us were feasting, been allowed to fast, for soon 
after our arrival Mr. Martin liad placed at tlieir disposal 



RE^IINISCENCES. 109 

a sh{^ck of new mown g'rass procured from a slough near 
by. Evidently the supply of g"rass had more than met 
the dem.ands of hung^er, for while "Buck" was patiently 
standing" holding up his end of the yoke, "Brin'' had lain 
down on the remainder of that nutritious provender and 
was quietly chewing his cud. Mr. Martin, after unfasten- 
ing the chain from the sapling", took his gad, gave a 
gentle tap or two, spoke a few words which these docile 
animals seemed to understand, for they leisurely came up 
and took their respective places by the wagon tongue. 
Mr. Martin hooked one end of the chain in the yoke, 
fastened the other to the houns, then climbed in, seated 
hhnself, and gave the signal to "Buck" and "Brin" which 
started us back through groves and glades, tall trees and 
yellow blossoms, to our homes, where we arrived just as 
the sun was going down on that eventful and pleasant 
September day. That evening I related to my uncle and 
aunt and cousins all incidents of the meeting- and trip, 
which amused and interested them. Dear Aunt Delilah 
was interested in all my affairs, and I confided all my 
little joys and sorrows to her as I used to do to my mother. 
She was like a mother to me and gave me her counsel 
and sympathy. The next morning I was to begin teach- 
ing "Mahaska's first school." 



no MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER X. 

Mrs. Effie Hoffman Rog-ers was comity superintendent 
of schools in Mahaska County in 1893. One day she came 
to my house and informed me that she was going- to ask 
me to do something-, and would not take "No" for an 
answer. I wondered what it could be. She proceeded 
to tell me of a scheme she had originated; she went on 
to say: "I am going to hold Normal in Penn College, 
which will begin in three weeks. I am going to request 
three Oskaloosa ladies, on different days of the session, 
to give a talk to the teachers and students, each on a dif- 
ferent subject. The ladies that I have chosen are Mrs. 
Judge Blanchard, Miss Mary Loring, and yourself. What 
I want you to talk about is Mahaska's first school, and 
the progress made since in schools, facilities for teach- 
ing, and educational work generally in Mahaska County. 
You taught the first school and you are the one to tell 
about it. You are supposed to know the facts and to be 
able to tell them more correctly than any other person. 
Mrs. Blanchard and Miss Loring have consented and I 
am not going to let you go until you consent." I told 



MAHASKA COUNTY 111 

her I never could do that in the world. If I should under- 
take to make a speech before the talent and brains 
assembled in an institution like that, I would blunder and 
stammer and make such a failure that she and all the rest 
would be sorry I had undertaken it. She kept on urging' 
me until the thought came to me, ''I might write it up 
and read my story, if that would do." I told her my 
thought and she said, ''That will do."' I promised to do 
the best I could and she went away. ■ In a few days the 
program was out with my name down for a ''talk". I felt 
that I couldn't back out after that. So I wrote the story 
of "Mahaska's first school" as well and as truthfully as 
I could do it now, and vrill in this story give it just as I 
read it to that assembly in Penn College on June 27, 1893: 

MAHASKA'S FIRST SCHOOL. 

Fifty years sounds like a long time to the young; 
1843 seems to young people of to-day like a time away in 
the dim past. It don't seem so long ago to those who 
were young men and young women then. In 1843 a con- 
siderable tract of as iine land as the eye of man ever be- 
held (of which Mahaska County vos a part) had been 
purchased by the United States from the Indians. The 
Indians having on the first day of May of that year 
peaceably retired to lands further west, this charming 
region was open to settlement by civilized white people. 
A number of families from the settlements near the Miss- 
issi])pi river took advantage of this opportunity to make 
for themselves homes. That was before the day of the 
telegraph. There was not a railroad within hundreds of 
miles of this grand region. Yet somehow its fame had 
reached the ears of men and women away in the eastern 



112 MAHASKA COUNTY 

states and in the middle states, whose hearts were brave, 
fortunes small, and children many. Some of those hon- 
est, courageous, intelligent sons and daughters of Illi- 
nois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia packed 
their few household goods into wagons, bade farewell to 
the scenes of their childhood, the old familiar meeting 
house, the school house, and with horses or ox teams 
slowly wended their way toward this lovely but unculti- 
vated garden. Some of these men left their families in 
the inhabited portions of the territory whilst they staked 
out their claims and built log" cabins. One room sufficed 
for a family, small or larg'e. Some of these families even 
lived for a while in bark huts which had been left by the 
Indians, where beads were lying about in such quantities 
that children picked them up by the pint. 

Kishkekosii is not found on the map of Mahaska 
County to-day. But that "deserted village" once had an 
existence on the bluffs overlooking the classic Skunk. 
Near the deserted village was a deserted burying ground, 
where in shallow graves in a sitting posture were found 
skeletons of Indians of long ago. The young doctor of 
the settlement, being archeologically inclined, helped 
himself to one of these skeletons; his purpose, no doubt, 
being the advancement of science. To the south and 
west of this village lay a stretch of country, prairie, in- 
terspersed with groves, the beauty of which in its prim- 
itive state no pen can truly describe. These groves of 
lind and drooping elms, bordered with a fringe of crab 
apple and plum trees, just as God planted them, had a 
beauty all their own. This charming place chanced to 
be discovered by some of God's noblemen brave, 



REMINISCENCES. 113 

broad-shouldered, manly men. The wives of these men 
were brave, too. The most of these pioneer men and 
women had been accustomed to the ordinary comforts of 
life, but they accepted the situation cheerfully. The 
men staked out their claims, built rude log" cabins, broke 
their ground, made rails and fenced their fields, planted 
their crops, and" went to work to establish homes and 
provide for their families. These families brought their 
religion with them. In nearly every one of these rude 
cabins was erected an altar to the living God. When 
they gathered around their tables scantily supplied with 
coarse food, they bowed their heads and gave thanks. 
There were no houses of worship except "God's first 
temples," these beautiful groves. Nor was there on 
September 1, 1844, a school-house in all this region called 
Mahaska County. 

Sometime in August of that year a young lady came 
to accept the offered shelter of a home in the family of 
a relative who had settled in that neighborhood. This 
young lady had taught two terms of school. Said young 
lady had ciphered as far as the single rule of three, knew 
a little about Kirkham's grammar, something about geog- 
raphy, could write a fair hand, had been first choice at 
spelling schools, and had been known to spell down a 
whole school. Heads of families in this primitive settle- 
ment straightway set about devising means whereby they 
might avail themselves of the service of the learned 
young woman as instructor to their children. In order 
to accomplish this it was necessary to erect a school- 
house. Although the official surveyors had not as yet 
designated the section lines, those men had guessed 



114 MAHASKA COUNTY 

about where they were, and had staked off their claims 
accordinj^dy. Each sixteenth section having been donated 
by the g-overnment to the pul)lic for school purposes, was 
in this case taken advantage of. This sixteenth section 
was covered mostly with timber — oak, elm, and lind, with 
lind predominating. Lind trees are not only beautiful to 
look upon, but easy to chop and split. One man who 
particularly felt an interest in having a school-house, and 
in this young girl also, went around and invited five or 
six others to join him in the enterprise. They readily 
acquiesced, set a day to commence, repaired to the woods 
on the border of the sixteenth section, taking with them 
axes, mauls, wedges, froes, augers, saws, and br-oad axes. 
They then proceeded to chop down some lind trees, not 
taking time to hew them, but built a cabin of round logs, 
leaving the bark on. They rived out boards of oak to 
cover it, putting weight-poles on to hold the boards in 
place. The floor, benches, and writing desk were made 
of puncheon. Puncheons are made of logs, split and 
made smooth on one side by hewing with a broad axe. 
Some of these early settlers had become experts in hew- 
ing puncheons and riving clap-boards. This "temple of 
learning" was supplied with a sod chimney, a hearth long 
and wide; not made with stone or brick, but with rich, 
black loam. A log was sawed out of one side of the 
house, leaving a space eight or ten feet long, for the pur- 
pose of admitting light. One of these primitive carpen- 
ters, with a pocket knife, whittled out sticks the proper 
length, then placed them in an upright position at regular 
distances apart along this opening. Glass being a luxury 
not easily obtained, oiled foolscap paper was pasted over 



REMINISCENCES. 115 

this improvised window sash. In laying" the foundation 
of this edifice the architects were particular to observe 
the points of the compass. A door was made by sawing 
out log's to the proper heighth and width. No shutter 
was provided, only an opening- looking- toward the south. 
When the sun shone there was no trouble in telling- when 
noon came. 

In order that things mig-ht be done in a business-like 
manner, an article of agTeement was drawn up which 
read something- like the following: 

''Articles of agreement made and entered into this, 
the ninth day of September, one thousand, eight hundred 
and forty-four, between Semira A. Hobbs of the first part, 
and the undersigned subscribers of the second part, 
for the consideration of the compensation hereinafter 
named, the party of the first part agrees to teach a term 
of school embracing thirteen weeks, beginning on Mon- 
day, September sixteenth, one thousand, eight hundred 
and forty-four. The party of the first part further agrees 
to keep good order to the best of her ability, and teach 
the following branches, namely: spelling, reading, writing, 
arithmetic, geograph}^, and English grammar, for the 
sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents i^er scholar. The 
party of the second part, for the faithful performance of 
the above promises, agree to pay the above named sum, 
to- wit: one dollar and twenty-five cents, for as many as 
are attached to our names. 

"Aaron Cox, 6. 
"Nathan Coontz, 3. 
"Brantley Stafford, 1. 
"poultney loughridge, 5. 
"John Cunningham, 3." 



IK) MAHASKA COUNTY 

The 16th was ushered in with a charming- morning. 
The sun rose bright and clear. Everything looked aus- 
picious—even the corn blades and pumpkin vines looked 
glad. There was a hurrying and scurrying among the 
girls and boys to find their books and slates, which had 
so long been unused. Then this young girl teacher with 
six pupils, all members of the same family, with a basket 
of corn bread, some dried apple pie and a bottle of milk, 
went tripping over prairie and through groves to the new 
school-house a mile and a quarter away. How clean and 
white that puncheon floor looked, how mellow the light 
through that oiled paper window, how clean of any speck 
of ashes or soot that sod fire-place. Directly there could 
be seen coming from different directions, bearing their 
dinner baskets and books, groups of bright, healthy, hap- 
py-looking children. These children came supplied with 
such books as happened to be in their home; several 
kinds of spellers, almost as many kinds of readers as 
there were children who could read. One of the larger 
girls brought an Olney's geography and atlas. That 
atlas had a map in it called the "Map of the United 
States," but on that map was no Minnesota, no Dakota, 
no Nebraska, no Kansas, no New Mexico, nor Colorado, 
nor Wyoming, nor Idaho, nor Montana, nor Utah, nor 
Nevada, nor Arizona, nor any State called Washington 
or California. This map was kind of three-cornered: at 
the upper left hand corner, bordering on the Pacific 
Ocean, wa-i a rather narrow looking strip called Oregon 
Territory. Between the Missouri River and the Rocky 
Mountains was a great almost blank space designated 
"uninhabited," and supposed to be uninhabitable. That 



REMINISCENCES, ll7 

young" girl teacher with those crude facilities did her 
best to instruct those boys and g-irls in the rudiments of 
what is called a "common school" education. . Every one 
of them were well-behaved, obedient children, tried hard 
to learn and made creditable advancement. That was 
one of Iowa's typical Falls. The prairies and sloughs 
were covered with yellow and purple blossoms. The 
g-roves with their borders of sumach and hazel were 
aglow with all the shades of green and red and yellow 
and brown. Deer and rabbits scamper over prairie and 
slough, then darting into the thick groves were soon out 
of sight. Those pioneers were good marksmen, and 
along with their corn bread had venison and prairie 
chicken in abundance. One evening on returning from 
school the teacher was informed that the head of the 
family had kflled a bear. 

The warm, hazy Indian Summer days lasted till away 
toward the last of November. But there came a time 
eventually when the sky was leaden and the northeast 
winds brought flakes of snow, which would sift through 
the chinks in the roof and walls, would scurry around 
and find their way in through that open door. When the 
cold became severe one of the kind, thoughtful mothers 
sent a coverlet to hang over the door. There was no 
lack of fuel, as there were great big chips, the result of 
that puncheon hewing, and plenty of dry sticks lying all 
about which made splendid fires. That big dirt hearth, 
by much tramping of little feet, in course of time became 
sunken to the depth of eight or ten inches below the 
level of the floor, the edge of which made a convenient 
seat, where the scholars could keep their feet warm and 



118 MAHASKA COUNTY 

at the same time study their lessons. The teacher occu- 
pied a more dig-nified seat, as a straig'ht-backed splint- 
bottomed chair had been provided for her. 

The last two or three of the thirteen weeks seemed 
to drag- along* pretty slow, but teacher nor scholars ever 
hinted at such a thing- as giving up. These boys and 
g-irls had pluck. They kept warm if they could, but did 
not whine if they were a little cold. They were used to 
cold houses, with only a fireplace, where the face would 
burn while the back would freeze. That was the order 
of thing's generally. There was not a stove of any kind 
in the whole community. The corn bread was baked in 
skillets with coals underneath and coals on the lid. The 
meat and turnips were boiled in pots set on the fire. The 
hospitality extended to strangers in those little log- cab- 
ins would amaze the dwellers in Oskaloosa's homes to- 
day. Some of the boys and g-irls who were a part of that 
little group which composed that humble school, have 
joined the great majority. They who remain are old peo- 
ple now — some are g-rand fathers and g-randmothers. All 
are useful and respectable members of society, the kind 
we call the bone and sinew of the countr3^ Great things 
have often grown from very humble beginnings. That 
crude log cabin school-house with its oiled paper win- 
dows, puncheon floor and sod chimney, its little band of 
scholars and undeveloped teacher formed the nucleus 
around which have grown substantial school-houses with 
all the facilities for teaching- on nearly every section of 
land in Mahaska County. Not only the country district 
school, but high schools with scholarly teachers, and col- 
leges with a corps of professors of which Oskaloosa may 



REMINISCENCES. 119 

justly be proud. That first school was a small affair, but 
was in keeping- with other things. Thing-s g-enerally 
were small and crude and humble. 

About two and a half miles to the west of the spot 
whereon was located this much mentioned school, there 
was .a very diminutive villag-e. This villag^e did as other 
villag"es are said to have done. It nestled, not in moun- 
tain nooks, by babbling- brooks, but in the prairie grass. 
Each one of the fifteen log- cabins seemed to be cuddled 
down in a nest of its own trying to hide in a species of 
grass known as "blue stem." This village, when first 
seen by that much mentioned teacher, on Saturday before 
the opening of that school, was only three months old, 
but had been christened "Oskaloosa." These first im- 
pressions of Oskaloosa were made from a view, taken 
when half a mile or more away. On coming into the town 
there was found to be in one of these little log cabins a 
store of general merchandise with a piece of red flannel 
hung out by the door to designate the kind of business 
carried on within. When Oskaloosa was visited a month 
later, dozens of frame houses had been built and occupied. 
Charles Purvine had built and was keeping a tavern (they 
did not call them hotels then) where the Downing House 
is now. A. J. Davis, the Montana millionaire, had a store 
on the north side of the square. Wm. B. Street had a 
store on the west side. There were two blacksmith shops 
and one tailor shop. All this in October, 1844. The 
people who founded Oskaloosa were rustlers. Most of 
the men and women who first occupied those little log 
cabins were intelligent, high-souled, and full of pluck. 
Oskaloosa's daughters of to-day may be more scholarly, 



120 MAHASKA COUNTY 

but no more honorable and modest than her girls of 
'44. The young men who came with little money but 
lots of brains, have made their way to fortune and to fame. 
Some of the children and grandchildren of those early 
log cabin dwellers are to-day among Oskaloosa's most re- 
spected and influential citizens. 



REMINISCENCES. 121 



CHAPTER XI. 

In the summer of 1844, when I was teaching school 
in the Brazelton neig^hborhood near Mt. Pleasant, one 
evening- just as I was leaving- the school-house for my 
boarding- place, two women came along- on horseback. 
Each had a pair of saddle-bags thrown across her horse, 
and a bag- or bundle hang-ing on the horn of the saddle. 
They halted a little and spoke to me. I immediately be- 
came interested in them and we entered into conversa- 
tion. They informed me that they w^ere trying- to reach 
Trenton that evening; had come from somewhere in Illi- 
nois that day, and had crossed the Mississippi at Bur- 
lington. I asked them where they lived. One of them 
said, "We are sisters and live away up in the New Pur- 
chase." We became more interested in each other when 
I told them about my relatives who were also living- in 
the New Purchase. They w^ere well acquainted with my 
relatives, and as I walked along the road and talked with 
them they told me about their husbands and children, and 
how they came to go back to Illinois where they moved 
from to Iowa. Business and pleasure combined had taken 



122 MAHASKA COUNTY 

them back to the old neighborhood after living a year in 
the wilds of the New Purchase. Their husbands had to 
take care of their claims and crops, and they were brave 
enough to make the journey alone and on horseback. 
One of those ladies was Mrs. Newton Seevers, who said 
she had two daughters old enough to keep house for their 
father in her absence. The other lady was Mrs. John W. 
Cunningham. She lived nearer my uncle's and could tell 
me much about them. Those women had a genuine, 
respectable, kindly appearance which drew me toward 
them, and made an impression on me at once which has 
lasted through all these years. There seemed to be little 
prospect at that time of my ever seeing them again, 
though Mrs. Cunningham remarked when we parted, "I 
wish you would come up to the New Purchase and teach 
school, for I have a boy and two little girls that I would 
like to send to school to you." We bade each other good- 
bye, all expressing the pleasure it had given us to have 
met in so unlooked-for a way, and hoped that we would 
meet again. 

Circumstances which I have already related brought 
me to the New Purchase, and not long after my arrival I 
became well acquainted with the Cunningham family. A 
warm friendship was established between that family and 
myself which has lasted until the present day. The boy, 
Joseph, and his sisters, Lizzie and Ella, were among my 
pupils in "Mahaska's first school." Mr. Cunningiiam 
was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and was 
much better informed than the average pioneer settler. 
The whole family had gentle manners, and dispensed so 
hospitably their plain new country fare that it was a solid 



REMINISCENCES. 123 

pleasure to visit them. Mr. Cunningham had a fine claim 
situated about two miles east of Oskaloosa. Mr. Charles 
Chick owns and lives on that place now. Joseph Cun- 
ning-ham died in early manhood. Lizzie and Ella grew to 
be lovely and handsome women. Lizzie married a gen- 
tlemen by the name of Barr and lives in Illinois. Ella 
married Dr. J. F. Smith, a Virginian, a successful busi- 
ness man and an honorable gentleman. Mr. and Mrs. 
Cunningham have long since been gathered to their 
fathers. I have seen the fourth generation of that fam- 
ily, and all are a credit to their worthy ancestors. 

Mrs. Seevers has been a widow for many years. She 
is now well on toward ninety, but quite well preserved, 
both physically and mentally. Her home is with her son 
Thomas Seevers, who is one of Oskaloosa's most pros- 
perous business men. Thomas Seevers owns and lives in 
one of the most beautiful homes in the city. 

There were three families of' Seev^erses who came to 
Mahaska County and made and located on claims near 
Oskaloosa in 1843. Newton Seevers, the father of Thomas, 
whom I have mentioned, and James Seevers, his brother. 
Newton's claim was less than a mile directly east of the 
town, while James owned and lived on a fine claim about 
a mile southeast. . Alfred Seevers, a cousin of Newton 
and James, was located on a line claim east of Newton's. 
George Seevers, brother to Alfred, was unmarried when 
he came, but soon went back to Ohio and married a splen- 
did girl. He brought her to Iowa and settled on his 
claim, part of which is now known as Park Place. James 
and Newton were from Virginia, but Alfred and George 
were from Ohio. Those Seevers brothers paid much 



124 MAHASKA COUNTY 

attention to fruit raising-. I think they had the first apples 
of anybody in the county. Some two or three years after 
the first settling of the country about Oskaloosa, Robert 
Seevers, a brother to Alfred and George, came with his 
family from Ohio, and bought a beautiful place a mile or 
so from town to the southwest, where he and his wife are 
living- to-day. Robert Seevers, as well as his brothers, 
has paid much attention to fruit growing-, and has always 
been authority on apples. 

When Robert Seevers and his wife came to Mahaska 
County they were the proud parents of three sons, very 
small boys then, but now are middle ag-ed men and all 
prominent citizens of Oskaloosa. Georg-e, the eldest, is 
a prominent attorney; Byron, the second, is called "the 
scholar," and Will, the third, is called one of Oskaloosa's 
best business men. These scions of the house of Seevers 
must be possessed of judg-ment, personal attractions, 
luck, or something-, for every last one of them married 
splendid women. Robert Seevers is over nhiety years 
old, but is still vig-orous both in body and mind. These 
Seeverses, James, Newton, Alfred, George and Robert, 
were the old set, who were men of families, and among- 
the first settlers about Oskaloosa. Like others that I 
have mentioned, they lived in log" cabins and patiently 
and honestly endured the hardships and privations at- 
tending the settling- of this part of Iowa. The wives of 
those Seeverses were not lacking in judg-ment, patient 
endurance and helpfulness — the qualities necessary to 
enable their husbands to succeed in opening- up a new 
country. I was acquainted with every one of them and 
know what I am talkinjr about. While the Seevers men 



REMINISCENCES. 125 

were breaking" prairie, splitting" rails and planting out 
orchards, the Seevers women were not only cooking", 
washing" and mending", but were planting" g"ardens and 
raising" chickens. Besides what was absolutely neces- 
sary, they whitewashed their cabin w^alls, planted and 
cultivated the old-fashioned flowers and trained morning"- 
glory vines about their cabin doors, which gave to their 
rustic homes a look of sweetness and attractiveness often 
lacking in moden and expensive homes. Those Seevers 
men were fine-looking", manly men, honorable and high- 
spirited, intelligent and honest. The kind of men wdio 
give credit to any community. With their other com- 
mendable qualities they happened to have the good sense 
to choose superior women for their w4ves. If any of the 
present generation of the Seevers family should become 
unworthy citizens, they can't blame it to the example of 
those worthy ancestors. 

I have known five generations of the Seevers family. 
Mr. Henry Seevers, the father of James and Newton, 
came here and spent the summer of 1846 with his sons. 
He was from Winchester, Virginia, and was a typical Vir- 
ginia gentleman. He w^ore a black broadcloth swallow- 
tailed coat, silk hat, and carried a gold-headed cane. He 
must have been well advanced in years, but was erect and 
walked with a firm step. He w^as tall and distinguished 
looking, aft'able, friendly, with the most gentle manners. 
I met him frequently, and used to think his children and 
grandchildren must feel very proud of him. He went 
with the rest of the men in this region on the 4th of July 
to Fairfield to attend the land sales, where I think the 
Seeverses all entered the claims they occupied at the first. 



126 MAHASKA COUNTY 

James Seevers and Rebecca, his wife, had six sons 
and one daughter. William H., the eldest, was a bright 
young" man; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 
an early day. He rose step by step in his profession until 
he reached a place on the Supreme Bench of Iowa. Three 
years ago he died, honored and lamented, not only by the 
whole community in which he had lived, but by the State. 
In early life he married Miss Caroline Lee, a young lady 
of more than ordinary intelligence, and possessing many 
noble traits of character. She survives him, and also 
five of their children, who are prosperous and respected 
members of society. 

As one drives about the town of Oskaloosa, ever and 
anon they pass an elegant home owned and occupied b}'' 
some member of the Seevers family. I have known the 
Seeverses in their rude and rustic cabins, and have lived 
to see many of them living in luxury and elegance; but 
whether they dwell in mansion or log cabin, their dignity 
and self respect has always commanded the respect of 
their neighbors. The character which riches and honors 
do not puff up, nor poverty degrade. 

Mr. James Seevers' beautiful daughter, Virginia, in 
September, 1845, was married to Micajah T. Williams, 
whom I have before mentioned as the first man I saw in 
Oskaloosa. I think they were the handsomest couple I 
ever saw. The little frame house where they first went 
to housekeeping stands there yet, looking small, shabby, 
and dilapidated; but I remember well a time when we 
young folks all thought it nice indeed. I don't think 
there were more than half a dozen frame dwelling houses 
in Oskaloosa when Micajah and Virginia went to house- 



REMINISCENCES. 



127 



keeping in that little frame house of two rooms. How 
sweet and cozy and comfortable that little home looked, 
with its new rag carpet, and bed so nicely made up with 
a pretty patch- work quilt and snowy pillows! The little 
new cooking stove with its bright tin furniture — every 
piece placed in just what seemed exactly the right place. 
Talk about "high art." Some of those women who 
helped to found the town of Oskaloosa, away back in the 
forties, were artists without knowing it. How plain I 
can see everything in the unpretentious home of that 
handsome young couple! though to see it I must look 
back with the mind's eye over more than half a centery. 
They lived in that cottage several years, but not w^ithout 
making several small additions to the same, which ren- 
dered it wdiat was thought comfortable and convenient in 
that early day. Their two charming daughters were born 
in that cottage, but before they became young ladies 
their parents had purchased and occupied what was at 
that time one of the most imposing and substantial houses 
in Oskaloosa. There the daughters, Alice and Beulah 
Joselle, the pride of their parents and of Oskaloosa, 
grew to charming, accomplished, and beautiful woman- 
hood. They were daintily brought up, and had every ad- 
vantage of education by schools and travel, w^ith the 
inheritance of beauty, grace, and good sense from their 
parents. They were not spoiled by high social position 
and flattering attention. 

Alice, when quite young, married Mr. George Ben- 
nett, a talented young man of good family. Alice has 
been a wddow many years. George, the husband of her 
youth, like many another bright young man from low^a, 



128 MAHASKA COUNTY 

sleeps his last sleep on the shore of the mighty Pacific. 
Beulah, their only daug'hter and only child, is a young 
lady now and is endowed with a fine mind and many no- 
ble traits of character. Beulah Joselle, "Jo," as we 
always called her, beautiful, queenly Jo, whose manners 
were dignified, though kind, gentle, though affable to- 
ward all, with never an unkind word for any. A queen 
among Oskaloosa's many lovely daughters, she married 
Judge L. C. Blanchard, one of Oskaloosa's most promi- 
nent citizens; a statesman, a successful business man 
and an honored member of society. Judge Blanchard 
made for his charming wife an elegant home, but after a 
few years of happy wedded life that beautiful and peace- 
ful home was broken into by that relentless reaper who 
is no respecter of homes nor individuals. The honored, 
the respected, the idolized Jo was by a weeping multi- 
tude followed to the city of the dead. In that same si- 
lent city, under a spreading oak, with a great boulder at 
their feet, lie side by side, Micajah and Virginia Williams. 
On that great boulder is chiseled the name, "Micajah T. 
Williams." 

John White was one of the men who staked oft' his 
claim before daylight on the morning of May 1st, 1843, 
adjoining what was afterward the county seat, Oskaloosa. 
John White, John Montgomery, Felix Gesford, D. W. 
Canfield and others had stealthily spied out the ground 
and had agreed upon their respective claims. They were 
not afraid of each other infringing, but of unknown par- 
ties who might be hidden around like themselves. Those 
men staked out their claims peaceably. John White's 
claim lay immediately north of what was chosen as the 



REMINISCENCES. 129 

''town quarter." The U. S. government reserves the 
privileg-e of choosing- a quarter section of land anywhere 
on the public domain to locate a county seat upon. John 
Montg"omery heippened to select and stake out the very 
quarter the commissioners wanted afterward for the 
county seat. Mr. Montgomery had to give up his favor- 
ite piece of land and take claims elsewhere. Mr. M. 
was nicely fixed in the way of land, about which I will 
have more to say after a while. 

John White built a cabin on his claim, said cabin be- 
ing located about a mile directly north of the public 
square in Oskaloosa. There he brought his family — wife 
and two children —early in the Spring of 1844. Not long 
after, a little girl was born to them whom they named 
"Anestatia." I presume Anestatia was the first white 
child born anywhere around here. Anestatia died when 
she was six or seven years old. Mr. and Mrs. White had 
a son Edmond and a daughter Mary when they came to 
Mahaska County. John White was an energetic and 
shrewd business man. His prosperity soon began to be 
talked about through the country. I often heard the 
remark, "How well John White is getting along," or "If 
John White keeps on as he is going he will soon be the 
richest man in the ccmnty." Their prophecies and sur- 
mises turned out to be true, for John White, wdien he 
died, December 24th, 1870, was by far the wealthiest man 
in the county. The Whites didn't get rich by pinching 
and saving. They always, from the very first, had the 
best the country could afford. Mrs. White's neatness 
and cleanliness became a proverb throughout this region. 
The first time I ever was in her house I was overwhelmed 



130 MAHASKA COUNTY 

with the supreme cleanliness of everything in that log 
cabin. I just stood and stared. I had seen many cozy, 
clean cabins, but had never seen anything that equaled 
that. The walls and joists and boards overhead were 
whitewashed as white as snow; the two beds were dress- 
ed m counterpanes as white as white could be, and the 
pillow cases were snowy white and looked like they were 
just from under the iron. 'Every piece of tinware shone 
like silver, and her brass kettle like burnished gold; the 
andirons in the wide fireplace were polished, the ashes 
taken up clean and the hearth swept to perfection; there 
were two or three strips of rag carpet on the floor, but a 
considerable space was bare, but those bare puncheons 
were scoured until they were in a state of cleanliness not 
often witnessed. 

Mrs. White's morning work was not entirely com- 
pleted when I arrived that morning, so she went on and 
finished her dishes; and just as she put the last plate in 
the cupboard, she brought out a pan full of broken sand- 
stone, remarking as she showed it to me: "John was down 
on the creek yesterday and he came across this fine, soft 
sandstone, and thinking it would be just the thing to 
scour with, he brought a lot of it home." She then pro- 
ceeded to pound up a lot of that sandstone until it as- 
sumed the consistency of fine sand. Then she gathered 
up every tin pan, bucket, coffee pot, and tin cup in the 
house, and went to work on them with that sand. She 
finished the tin things, and then the brass kettle was made 
to take on a polish not often seen outside of Mrs. White's 
kitchen. After all that she tackled the wooden bread 
bowl and gave it a thorough scouring. I sat and gazed 



REMINISCENCES. 131 

with admiration and amazement. I thought everything 
in that cabin was as clean and shining as it could be be- 
fore she began. I said, "Mrs. White, I think you excel 
any woman I ever saw in making things shine." "Oh!" 
she said. "If you think I am a good housekeeper, you 
ought to have seen my mother's housekeeping. She 
kept her shovel and tongs and tea-kettle handle polished 
like silver all the time." Mrs. White didn't limit her 
beautifying of things to the inside of her cabin, but kept 
a nicely swept door-yard, trained morning glories and 
cypress vines about her windows, and out in front she 
cultivated a great billowy mass of pinks and bachelor 
buttons, and marigolds and four o'clocks, of every shade 
and color. Mrs. White could make of a cabin in the 
wilderness a veritable bower of beauty. 

The Whites were not like many others who came in 
the very early days, poor and barely able to exist, but 
w^ere quite well-to-do when they lived in Jefferson County. 
Mr. White once told me that he was worth four thousand 
dollars in money and other property when he came to 
Mahaska County. If he did outstrip his fellows in the 
race for wealth, he had a better start than almost any 
man I knew of the early settlers. As I said before, they 
didn't get rich by scrimping and denying themselves the 
ordinary comforts of life. Mr. White, from the begin- 
ning, provided bountifully for his family. If the neces- 
saries in the way of food were not to be obtained around 
here, he went off somewhere else and got them. They 
entertained hospitably and bountifully. Mrs. White was 
not only the best of housekeepers as regards carefulness 
and cleanliness, but was an exquisite cook. The day I 



132 MAHASKx^ COUNTY 

went there and she amazed me so with her neatness and 
shiningness of everything, I stayed and took dinner with 
them. Her dinner was served with a taste and skill as 
unusual as were her other housekeeping- performances. 
The snowy, home made linen table cloth, with every 
crease made by the iron distinctly marked. The delicious 
g-reat big slices of fried ham, placed in the platter in a 
way to look the most tempting, with cream gravy poured 
over. A dish heaped up with mashed potatoes, with a 
hollow place on top wherein was a big lum]) of butter. 
Biscuit tender, white, and puffy, the making of which, 
I think, is a lost art. A great roll of golden butter — not 
a little thin slice but a big roll, so artistically printed it 
seemed a pity to cut into it. Old-fashioned Java coffee, 
the kind which has gone clear out of fashion. If we had 
the same kind of coffee to-day, I don't think my "French 
chef" could excel in making coffee such as Mrs. White 
served at that unpretentious dinner in her log cabin. I 
have visited Mrs. White in her elegant home, furnished 
wdth every luxury of modern times; have dined at her 
board, glittering with cut glass and burnished silver; but 
none of it impressed me like the exquisite taste and skill 
displayed in V)eautifying her cabin home, and the superb 
cooking she did by that old-fashioned fire-place. 

Many years ago Mr. White built an elegant home on 
the spot where their log cabin stood, and furnished it 
with everything beautiful from garret to cellar. As they 
went from room to room in that splendid home they went 
with sad hearts. A long row of little graves in the Old 
Cemetery tells the story. Their elegant home, broad 
acres, stocks, bonds, silver and gold w^ere no bar against 



REMINISCENCES. 133 

that relentless reaper who claimed one after another of 
those lovely children, sparing- none but baby Jennie. I 
remember a conversation I once had with Mrs. White 
when Jennie was a baby in her arms, and she only had 
one other child left, Iowa, who was a young", l)rig]it, hap- 
py-looking- girl. Mrs. White had a settled sadness in her 
face as she talked of one child after another that had 
been taken. To divert her mind from her bereavement 
I commenced talking about her home and complimenting 
her on her beautiful surroundings. She looked around 
with a sig-h, and replied: "O, yes; I have everything I 
desire in house and furniture and husband, but my chil- 
dren have been taken one by one, until I only have these 
two left, and I am looking- for them to be taken from me 
as all the rest have been." Happy Iowa was snatched 
away in her youth, and the sorrowing parents saw an- 
other mound of earth added to the already numerous 
group. But Jennie, the baby, was spared. 

John White was a g-ood-looking man, a little less 
than six feet high, was active and quick in his move- 
ments; his hair was dark brown, his eyes blue-gray; he 
was a kind and obliging neighbor, was without affecta- 
tion and the patronizing airs some men assume when 
they have outstripped their fellows in the race for 
wealth. There is an addition to Oskaloosa, laid out by 
John White, and called ''White's Addition." 

Mr. White was always prosperous, and sound finan- 
cially. At the time of his death he was successfully car- 
rying on the banking business. About the time of Mr. 
White's death, two young men, brothers, Israel and 
Ernest Gibbs, came from New England to Oskaloosa and 



134 MAHASKA COUNTY 

established themselves in the business of banking-. They 
were not only fine business men, but handsome and dis- 
tinguished-looking'. Israel married one of Oskaloosa's 
fairest daug^hters, Miss Lucy Dodg-e, who is not only 
fair, but lovely in character. When John White died, 
Jennie, his little daug-hter, was hardly beyond childhood. 
When she became a young lady, her manners were pleas- 
ing, her face was fair, and she married Mr. Ernest Gibbs, 
who is and always has been a successful business man. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs have one daughter, Nellie, a 
bright and sparkling girl; she is handsome, like her 
grandmother once was. Mr. Ernest Gibbs has done much 
for the improvement of Oskaloosa; he has built many 
substantial business houses and numerous handsome 
dwellings. The poor of Oskaloosa and vicinity have rea- 
son to bless Ernest and Jennie Gibbs, for they have been 
fed and clothed and sheltered and warmed by these kind- 
hearted and benevolent citizens. 



REMINISCENCES. 



135 



CHAPTER XII. 



When I beg^an my story, my purpose was to relate 
my recollections of the early settlers, their heroism in 
battling- with the hardships and privations they were 
compelled to meet in converting" the wilderness into the 
grand and glorious land we see to-day. My idea was to 
give to the present generation a plain and true account 
of the way things appeared to me in that long ago time. 
But I find myself continuaUy wanting to tell about the 
children and grandchildren of those honest pioneers who 
have done and are still doing honor to themselves and to 
their worthy ancestors. 

This part of Iowa did not have for its first white set- 
tlers a lot of thieves and schemers. There may have 
been a few of that sort, but if there were I can't think 
of any just now. All that I knew, and I knew a good 
many, were honest and obliging, willing that their neigh- 
bors should enjoy all the rights they claimed for them- 
selves. They were generally God-fearing, Christian 
people, and had faith in God and in one another. The 
first settlers in the town of Oskaloosa, and the country 



136 MAHASKA COUNTY 

immediately surrounding it, were the people I knew most 
about in the pioneer days. There were little groups of 
settlers here and there all over the county, I knew the 
reputation of almost all, and was personally acquainted 
with many of those who were among the first to make 
homes in the wilderness. There was Dr. Warren, who 
lived in the extreme western part of the county; he prac- 
ticed medicine, and was well spoken of as a physician, 
and was a grand, good man. He was a devout Metho- 
dist, and would go a long way to attend a religious meet- 
ing, especially Methodist. He was a licensed preacher, 
but did not take a regular circuit. 

In 1845, when there was not a meeting-house in Ma- 
haska County, the first court-house was built at the 
northwest corner of the public square in Oskaloosa, on 
what was called the "eye-tooth lot." Not long after it 
was finished, the Methodists held quarterly meeting 
therein. As is the custom among Methodists, they held 
what is called an experience, or speaking meeting. In 
that day it was their habit at those meetings to testify, 
or relate their religious experience, especially their con- 
version and the circumstances leading up to the same. 
There were Methodists here and there all over the coun- 
ty, or wherever there were a few families living near 
enough together to call each other neighbors. The 
Methodist folks from those remote settlements, as well 
as those near by, were at that meeting. Those people — 
strangers one to another -had come from difl:erent States 
and different localties; many of them had not had a priv- 
ilege like that for months. I saw many faces there I 
had never seen before; many were shabbily dressed, 



REMINISCENCES. io< 

women came with smibonnets on, and some with little 
babies in their arms; men in threadbare old-fashioned 
clothes. But honesty and earnestness of purpose were 
plain to be seen in their faces, though brown with expos- 
ure to sun and prairie winds. T can see them yet, though 
more than half a hundred years have come and gone 
since I sat with tears in my eyes and listened to the art- 
less stories, told with simple eloquence, of the time, 
place and circumstances which led to their giving their 
hearts to the Lord and finding peace to their souls. I 
remember one young woman in particular. I didn't know 
who she was then, and I don't know yet, but in my mind 
I see her as she stood up in that meeting with a calico 
sunbonnet on and a little baby in her arms, and with 
tears streaming down her face, told about giving her 
heart to God at a camp-meeting back in Indiana, and that 
He had kept her in peace, though far from her old home 
and from meeting, living with only her husband and baby 
in a cabin a long way from neighbors. She went on to 
say: "If it was not for my faith in God I don't know what 
I would do. Wolves howl around my house and rattle- 
snakes crawl in my yard. Often when my husband is 
away from morning till night, breaking prairie or making 
rails, I am compelled to leave my baby and go away off 
to a slough to get water. When I start I lift my heart to 
God and say, 'Lord, please to take care of my baby, ' and 
the Lord has always taken care of me and my baby. I 
have suffered no harm, though I have met many a rattle- 
snake on my way to the slough." When that woman had 
ceased speaking I saw tears in the eyes of many a rugged, 
sun-burned man. 



138 MAHASKA COUNTY 

After many others had testified, Dr. Warren rose up 
and made a speech which I have not forgotten; neither 
have I forgotten the way he appeared to me that day. 
He was near six feet high, with dark brown hair, and 
gray eyes with a tenderness in their expression. There 
was a look about him of chivalrous manliness that women 
are not afraid to meet, though they were alone in a wil- 
derness. His voice and look were the kind that children 
instinctively take to; but what he said was this: 

"My Christian friends, brothers and sisters, I find 
myself a stranger in a company who seem to be strangers 
to each other; many of us never saw each other's faces 
until we came to this meeting. We seem to have come 
to this meeting with a common purpose — that of worship- 
ing the God and Father of us all, and of having our spir- 
itual strength renewed. We have come to this new coun- 
try from various States and various localities; the places 
of our nativity are widely separated from each other; 
there are scarcely two families from the same neighbor- 
hood. I have listened with much interest to the stories 
told by one and another, of your conversion, faith and 
Christian experience. As you talked, this thought came 
to me. No matter how diversified our homes and sur- 
roundings, whether among the tall poplars and clear, 
gravelly streams of Ohio and Indiana, the blue grass 
meadows of Kentucky, the wide prairies of Illinois, the 
hills and springs of Tennessee, or the New Purchase of 
Iowa, the religion of Jesus Christ is the same. Forsaking 
sin, resolving deep down in the heart to serve God, and 
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ are followed by the 
same results, no matter where. I will go from this meet- 



REMINISCENCES. 139 

ing with my heart full of thankfulness. May the Lord 
continue to bless and keep you all." 

Dr. Warren was an educated Christian gentleman; 
he went, after a long and useful life, to an honored grave. 
Some of his children and grandchildren are citizens of 
Mahaska County to-day, and are valuable members of 
society. Dr. Warren's son, Robert Warren, is now a cit- 
izen of Des Moines, but his boyhood, his young manhood, 
and his mature manhood days, clear on to the days when 
men arrive at the place where they begin to go down the 
hill of life, were spent in Mahaska County. Robert 
Warren has been a member of the State Legislature, and 
in many w^ays honored with the confidence of Mahaska's 
citizens. Robert Warren is a man amongst men; he is a 
fine-looking man, rather tall and well-proportioned, and 
like 'his father, at first sight one would feel that he was a 
man to be trusted. 

Not long after coming to Mahaska County I heard 
that the Rev. Allen Johnson was in this region, and 
about two weeks after I began teaching that first school, 
I was told that Bro. Johnson was going to preach in Os- 
kaloosa. I borrowed my uncle's black horse, Phillis, and 
came on a new road to Oskaloosa. Bro. Johnson preach- 
ed in an unfinished and unoccupied log house. There 
was no floor, but the walls were up, a clapboard roof on, 
and a door sawed out. From somewhere, I presume 
away down in Jefferson or Van Buren County, Mr. Can- 
field, the owner of said house, must have gotten the 
plank of which some seats were improvised, and a sort 
of raised platform at one end. I have learned since that 
the first court ever held in the county was held in that 



140 MAHASKA COUNTY 

house, and that platform was the judge's bench. Rev. 
Johnson preached from that rostrum that day to an audi- 
ence of perhaps thirty persons. He told us he would 
preach two weeks from that day at the house of Dr. 
Weatherford, where he proposed to organize a Methodist 
society, or class. The house where Bro. Johnson preach- 
ed on that 29th of September, 1844, stood on Lot 5, Block 
20, o. p., Oskaloosa. Dr. Weatherford's house was on 
Lot 7, Block 19, o. p., Oskaloosa. When that meeting 
was out and I had gone out of the house, I met my old 
acquaintance, Dr. Porter, who was very polite and pro- 
posed to assist me in mounting my horse, which was 
hitched up by Smith & Cameron's store. The doctor had 
much to tell me as we walked along toward Phillis, about 
Oskaloosa's prospects and possibilities. I remember 
with what pride he pointed to a pile of lumber on the 
east side of the public square, saying, "We are going to 
have a tavern. Mr. Charles Purvine is going to build 
right away, and won't that be a Godsend to we young 
fellows? And not only to us, but to the people we have 
been sponging on?" "I guess you have not been spong- 
ing very bad," I replied. "I don't know what else to 
call it," he said, "for here are Cage Williams, A. D. 
Jones, Esquire Edmundson and myself without a roof to 
cover our heads. If the people in these little cabins you 
see around here didn't shelter us and feed us and let us 
have a place to hang around in we would have to leave, 
or camp out on the prairie and go hungry. Of course, 
we try to compensate them, but we all feel like we are 
contracting a bigger debt of gratitude than we can ever 
pay." "That seems to ])e the natural order of things, " 



REMINISCENCES. 141 

I replied, "my uncle and aunt take in everybody that 
come along", make beds on the floor, feed them and their 
teams, and I never hear them say anything' about debts 
of gratitude." "Well," said the doctor, '"if there are 
not a whole-souled lot of people around here, I don't 
know wdiere you would gx) to And them."" 

I climbed on a box, the doctor led Phillis up beside 
it, I took my seat in the saddle and joined my friend, 
Patterson Martin. He had found a much shorter road to 
Oskaloosa than the one the doctor's wife and I traveled 
on our first visit. 

I never think of those early times without remem- 
bering- the unfeigned friendship and kindness of Patter- 
son and Amanda Martin. Little Mary, who was a baby 
when I first knew them, is the wife of Mat Crozier, one 
of Mahaska's prosperous farmers, and has a house full of 
sons and daughters of her own. John N. Martin, the 
second child of Patterson and Amanda Martin, Captain 
Martin now, served his country throug-h the war of the 
rebellion, and is a respected citizen of Oskaloosa. Pat- 
terson Martin sleeps in Forest Cemetery. His devoted 
wife had a handsome monument erected to his memoiy, 
and his children plant flowers on his g"rave. His widow, 
Amanda, owns and occupies with her son Byron a valua- 
ble little farm and a comfortable and pretty cottag-e, not 
far from the place where they built their first cabin. 

Amanda Martin, one of the very few of we old set- 
tlers who are left to tell the story of the early days, is 
bent with ag^e and broken in health, but she, by great 
effort, comes to see me often. I am always glad to see 
her, and every time we meet we have a talk about the 



142 MAHASKA COUNTY 

people and the things of long- ago. In all the fifty-five 
years that she has gone in and out among the people of 
this region, no one can truthfully say a word of harm of 
Amanda Martin. She was a self-sacrificing wife and 
mother, a kind and obliging neighbor, an humble Chris- 
tian. Her children have reason to be proud of the mother 
who has lived in one neighborhood more than half a cen- 
tury, and all that time had the confidence and respect of 
her neighbors. 

Amanda Martin came with her husband and baby to 
the New Purchase in 1843, lived in the crudest of crude 
cabins, and endured all the hardships of first settlers. 
At first their shanty was hardly a bar against the wolves 
that made night hideous with their howling. Deer were 
so plentiful they were often seen near their house; in 
those days deer were sometimes run down by dogs. One 
day Mr. Martin's dogs ran two deer close to their house; 
they were so near worried out that Mr. Martin killed 
them with an ax. That was late in the Autumn of 1844. 
I remember how excited he was when he came to my 
uncle's house, bringing a great big piece of venison and 
relating his adventures. We were surprised, for that 
was an unusual feat, even in that time of plenty, in the 
way of game. 

There was a family by the name of Coontz, living not 
far from my uncle's. Their children all went to my 
school. One day, not far from the time Mr. Martin had 
slaughtered the two deer, Mrs. Coontz came running 
with all her might, bare-headed and screaming: 

"Mr. Cox; a bear! Mr. Cox; a bear!" 

Uncle Aaron, as soon as he caught her meaning, 



REMINISCENCES. 143 

snatched his ritle from its wooden hooks above the cabin 
door, slung" on his powder horn and proceeded to follow 
Mrs. Coontz. She managed to tell him on the way that 
she had heard a pig squealing- down by the cornfield fence, 
and on investigation found one of their shoats in the 
grasp of a bear. She called Mr. Coontz, who came with 
his gun and two dogs, at sight of which the bear ran up 
a tree. Uncle and Mrs. Coontz hurried to the scene, 
found Mr. Coontz with gun in hand, but afraid to shoot 
lest he should miss the bear and be attacked himself by 
that ferocious beast. Uncle Aaron was a sure shot. The 
dogs were making a big fuss, and the bear was away up 
on a limb of a dead tree, quietly watching things down 
below. Uncle took aim, fired, and brought the bear 
down, wounded. Both dogs jumped ' on the bear, which 
was not too badly wounded to make resistance. Mr. 
Coontz, to help the dogs out, seized a club to facilitate 
matters, but in his excitement struck one of his dogs the 
blow intended for the bear, which laid the dog out for a 
while. My uncle in the meantime had loaded his gun 
again, and the second shot put a quietus on the bear. 
Uncle was a modest man, never taking any glory to him- 
self, and when he was sure the bear was dead he walked 
off home, leaving the Coontzes in undisputed possession. 
But the next morning Mr. Coontz came over, bringing a 
great big roast out of that bear's shoulder. It wasn't a 
large bear, but was fat. In that day bear's oil was 
thought to be an excellent oil for the hair. My cousins, 
Eliza Ann and Elizabeth, and myself cut a lot of fat off 
of that roast and rendered it out. We girls put the oil 
in a bottle and held it in common. 



144 MAHASKA COUNTY 

While I am talking" about game I want to tell about 
the prairie chickens. My uncle had some shock corn out 
in the Winter of '44 and '45, and thousands of prairie 
chickens would light in that field. My cousins, William 
and James, made traps and caug^ht hundreds of them. 
Prairie chicken is splendid meat, and nothing- can excel 
the gravy on corn-bread, but we realized that Winter that 
there was such a thing as having too much of a g^ood 
thing. How well I remember how pleased and triumph- 
ant those boys used to look as they came from their traps 
with both hands full of chickens. 

In the Autumn of '44, when I was teaching that first 
school, and.the Winter following, I went to Oskaloosa as 
often as I had opportunity and could find an excuse for 
g-oing". That g^ood uncle would let me ride Phillis when 
I didn't g-o in a wagon or sled with the Martins. My 
third trip was to the meeting- given out by Bro. Johnson 
as the time and place he expected to org-anize a class, or 
society of Methodists. I had learned the w^ay and was 
not afraid. That Sabbath morning, October loth, 1844, 
I mounted Phillis and went alone through woods and 
sloughs and glades and across Spring Creek. I had 
learned 'to watch out for blazed trees. For fear the 
young generaticm will not know what ""blazed" means in 
the way we used the word, I will explain. It was chop- 
ping 'out a big chip, or peeling bark oft' of trees along a 
dim road. 

When in 1894 the fiftieth anniversary of that first or- 
ganization of the Methodist Church had rolled around, 
the Methodist people of Oskaloosa proposed to and did 
hold a jubilee celebration lasting eight days. They gath- 



REMINISCENCES. 



145 



ered all the history relating to the church, both ancient 
and modern, which they could depend upon as being" cor- 
rect, and produced the same in one way or another at 
that meeting. Letters were received and reminiscences 
related. Rev. E. H. Waring, once pastor of the church 
in Oskaloosa, but now retired, was one of the prime 
movers in getting up that jubilee celebration. He came 
one day to see me and told me about it and requested me 
to write an account of the first organization of the Meth- 
odist Church in Oskaloosa, and read it on anniversary 
day. I knew I was the only person in all this country 
who was there and witnessed that crude and humble be- 
ginning. I remembered well the day, and almost all the 
people, and nearly every circumstance connected with it, 
I promised Mr. Waring to write as true an account as I 
could, and read it on the day designated. I give here 
just what I read on that fiftieth anniversary of the organ- 
ization of the Methodist Church in Oskaloosa. 



Reminiscences of the Early Days. 

[BY MRS. T. G. PHILLIPS.] 

Some of us who have arrived at the age of three 
score years can, by turning our thoughts back to child- 
hood and early youth, see with the mind's eye a plain, 
unpretentious home where dwelt our parents, brothers 
and sisters. W"e remember with what pure delight we 
slaked our thirst at the spring which bubbled out of the 
hillside, forming a little brook which wandered oft" through 
the meadow, its banks lined with mint and rushes. The 
orchard with big apple trees whose limbs were bending 
down with great red apples; the great, tall poplar trees 



146 MAHASKA COUNTY 

looking" so grand and holding- their heads clear above the 
beech and sugar trees; the old meeting-house where we 
were wont to assemble on Sunday; the school-house 
where we w^ere taug^ht "the three R's," and besides "the 
three R's," a little of Eng-lish Grammar and Geog^raphy. 

About 1837 we began to hear a country talked of 
w^est of the Mississippi River called "Blackhawk's Pur- 
chase." A little later on we heard it called Iowa Terri- 
tor}'-. We heard wondrous stories of its broad prairies, 
rich soil and beautiful rivers. About that time there oc- 
curred a great financial crisis which led to the breaking 
of many home ties. Young men with small fortunes, be- 
sides health and pluck, bade farewell to parents and 
sweetheart; older men with families, whose earthly pos- 
sessions, great or small, had been partially or wholly 
swept away by the panic, by one means or another made 
their way to Iowa Territory. Some of us remember a 
time in the early forties, when our household goods were 
piled into big wagons, the neighbors coming to bid us 
good-bye, the four horses or long string of oxen hitched 
to the wagon, the tearful parting with relatives and 
neighbors, the last look at the old home, the crack of the 
driver's whip, when we began to journey tow^ard what 
seemed to us a far-off country. 

The journey to some of us was delightful. The 
warm, happy, Indian Summer days; the mellow^ nights, 
just cool enough to make camping out pleasant; the pop- 
lars and beech and sugar trees arrayed in all the gor- 
geous coloring which a typical October can give in Ohio 
and Indiana; the crossing of big prairies in Illinois; the 
sluggish Illinois River, where were thousands upon thou- 



REMINISCENCES. 147 

sands of ducks, and finally the great "Father of Waters," 
are thmg"s which do not fade out of the minds of people 
of ordinary intelligence. The bluffs along the west bank 
of the great river were covered with oak, elm, hickory, 
and many other kind of trees and shrubs. To the west 
were great prairies, interspersed with groves and tra- 
versed by creeks and rivers whose banks were lined with 
various kinds of trees, festooned with vines whose grace 
of foliage cannot be described with pen or portrayed with 
artist's brush. The newcomer found everything here to 
make a prosperous, rich and beautiful country. Farms 
were opened, towns sprang up near the Mississippi, and 
before long the pioneer was found building his cabin and 
turning over the prairie sod as much as fifty miles west 
of the great river. In 1843 another purchase of lands 
was made by the United States government from the In- 
dians. This purchase embraced, among others, what is 
now Mahaska Count}^ While the Indians were still here, 
hunters and other adventurers had discovered a grand 
region lying between the Des Moines and Skunk Rivers. 
In journeying up through this region they beheld all 
about them a most charming prospect. Up the divide a 
vast native meadow, with tall grass waving and flowers 
blooming, groves to the right of them, groves to the left 
of them, a vista of green sward in front of them. Look- 
ing to the northwest could be seen what seemed to be 
the timbers bordering the Des Moines and the timbers 
bordering the Skunk, each reaching out an arm as if try- 
ing to clasp hands across the billowy mass of green. It 
was found that the Des Moines and Skunk Rivers drew 
nearer each other at this place than in all their meandering 



148 MAHASKA COUNTY 

course toward the g"reat Father of Waters. Those early- 
discoverers thoug-ht "Narrows'' an appropriate name, so 
they called this place "The Narrows." 

On the 1st day of May, 1843, white peo])le were given 
the privilege of coming into this charming place and se- 
lecting claims Vvdiereon to make homes for themselves. 
There was not quite such a rush to get in here as there 
was to enter the Cherokee Strip, but there was something 
of a rush. Men staked out their claims by torchlight, 
and when daylight came on the first day of May all the 
land around and about The Narrows was claimed by some- 
body. Many families came and settled about through 
the country in '43. Some lived in tents, some in rudely- 
constructed log cabins, and some even lived for a time in 
the bark huts left by the Indians. The people who first 
located on the "Six Mile" prairie thought, and with rea- 
son, that they had found the very garden spot of the 
country. There were several Methodist families among 
the first who settled on the Six Mile prairie, and it is said 
that the very first sermon ever preached in Mahaska 
County w^as by a young Methodist preacher named Lewis, 
in somebody's cabin on the Six Mile prairie. 

Those early settlers soon began to speculate and 
maneuver about the location of the county seat. The 
geographical center of what is now Mahaska County is 
about two miles north of the place then called The Nar- 
rows. The Six Mile prairie people w^anted the county 
seat, the Center people wanted it, and the Narrows peo- 
ple wanted it. The Narrows could boast of having one 
residence and one other small cabin, with a sign on top on 
which was painted in large letters the word, "Grocery," 



REMINISCENCES. 149 

The residence was occupied by Perry Crossmaii and wife, 
Mrs. Jones, who w^as Mr. Grossman's mother-in-law (a 
lady possessing much nativ^e wit and shrewdness), and 
her two sons, George W. and John W. Jones. Mrs. Jones 
also had a handsome young daughter, Sarah, who is now 
Mrs. McWilliams, and a citizen of Oskaloosa. The Com-- 
mercial House, with the sign of grocery on top, was not 
a wholesale establishment, but did a retail business, not 
only in groceries, but in what is called "general mer- 
chandise." Mr. Grossman and the Jones brothers were 
sole owners and proprietors, and enjoyed without compe- 
tition the entire trade of The Narrows. When the com- 
missioners who were appointed to locate the county seat 
came in the Spring of '44 they found hospitable enter- 
tainment at the Grossman- Jones residence. There they 
made their headquarters while examining the ditl'erent 
points claiming to be the best locations. 

That was an early Spring, and by the first of May 
the groves and prairies looked lovely. The commission- 
ers looked at Six Mile; they looked at the Genter, and 
were rather favorably impressed with that place, not 
only on account of its being the geographical center of 
the county, but on account of the many beautiful groves. 
Among those groves were a number of slight depressions 
which we called "sloughs.''' At that time they were all 
clothed in green and looking their best. After examining 
all points they assembled at the Grossman-Jones resi- 
dence to talk it over and make their decision. Mrs. 
Jones was present during their deliberations and eagerly 
listening to their remarks, heard one gentleman say: 
"The Genter is a desirable location on account of those 



150 MAHASKA COUNTY 

groves being" clustered in there so nicely. Why, the 
Center has seven groves." Mrs. Jones, on hearing this 
remark, took the liberty of making the following speech: 
"Gentlemen, you say the Center has seven groves; well, 
sure enough it has seven groves; but did you notice that 
mixed up with those seven groves are ten sloughs'?" 
One of the commissioners remarked: "Mrs. Jones is 
about right. " The others thought so, too, and that is 
the way the county seat came to be located at The Nar- 
rows. This was on Saturday, the 11th day of May, 1844. 

The new county seat was named "Oskaloosa." A 
quarter section of land was selected, surveyed and laid 
off into town lots; these lots were offered for sale to the 
highest bidder. Several were sold, but bids were so low 
the sale was stopped for a while. Very soon some log 
houses were commenced. The first court was held in an 
unfinished log house. On September 14th, 1844, there 
were just fifteen little log cabins in Oskaloosa. The first 
sermon preached by a Methodist in Oskaloosa was on 
Sunday, September 29th, 1844. Allen Johnson was the 
preacher. He announced at that meeting that he would 
on October 13th, hold a meeting at the home of Dr. 
Weatherford, at which meeting he proposed to organize 
a class, or society. He requested all who held letters of 
membership in the M. E. Church to take them with them. 
By that time several Methodist families had located in 
Oskaloosa. Dr. Weatherford's house was a log cabin of 
one room about 15 by 18 feet in size, and was located on 
Lot 7, Block 19, in the town of Oskaloosa. The weather 
generally was lovely that fall, but that particular Sunday 
was cloudy. There was a chilliness in the air which 



REMINISCENCES. 151 

made one think all the time that it was going to snow; 
but it didn't snow. Dr. Weatherford and his wife made 
their one room as comfortable as they could for the meet- 
ing; some fifteen or twenty persons had gathered thei'e 
by eleven o'clock. The doctor was only a brother-in-law 
to the church, but he had skirmished around among the 
neighbors and borrowed chairs enough to almost seat the 
entire congregation: as many as could, sat on the bed. 
In the wide fireplace a heap of logs were blazing which 
sent a glow of warmth over the faces of that little group. 
The coffee pot and sauce -pans hung on the wall; the 
water-bucket with gourd dipper sat on a box; some blue- 
edged plates ornamented a shelf on the wall. That state 
of things seems amusing to people of to-day, but that 
earnest group of worshipers never thought of being 
amused. Brother Johnson came in, warmed his hands, 
took off his overcoat, seated himself by the little table 
where a Bible and hymn-book had been placed, sat in 
silence a few moments, then proceeded to open the meet- 
ing by reading a hymn. He informed the congregation 
that the hymn would be sung in common meter, and 
would some brother please lead in singing? We will 
sing without lining. 

"O, for a thousand tongues to sing 
My great Redeemer's praise.'' 

Brother William G. Lee led the singing. There were 
good singers in Oskaloosa, even then. The whole con- 
gregation knelt while Bro. Johnson prayed; he preached, 
then invited all who wished to join by letter or by giving 
him their hand to come forward. Some twelve or four- 
teen persons then formed the little band which consti- 



152 MAHASKA COUNTY 

tuted the beginning of the Methodist Church in Oska- 
loosa. Among those who that day gave their letter or 
their hands to Bro. Johnson, were Dr. William G. Lee 
and wife, Samuel Gossage and wife, George Jennison and 
wife, Mrs. Mary Weatherford, Mrs. Hannah Phillips, 
and the writer of this, who was then Semira A. Hobbs. 
The others I cannot recall. After that little organiza- 
tion, meetings were held regularly in one little cabin and 
another until the court house was built, which was the 
next year, 1845. 

In these days of fine churches, with cushioned pews 
or opera chairs, carpets, pipe organs and electric lights, 
young people smile at the idea of holding meetings in lit- 
tle log cabins lighted with a tallow candle or a grease 
lamp made in a piepan; but we who lived here fifty years 
ago and helped to lay the foundation of Iowa's present 
greatness, saw^ nothing ludicrous in those crude and hum- 
ble beginnings. Heavenly meetings were held in those 
little cabins. For a Methodist preacher, in those days, 
training in a Theological school was not thought to be 
necessary, but to be soundly converted, feel a call to 
preach, and have a tolerable education were the main re- 
quirements. Some of that class foiind their way into the 
wilds of the New Purcliase fifty years ago, and with an 
eloquence born of faith and an earnest desire to serve 
God and save souls, stirred and melted the hearts of their 
hearers. Souls were converted and shouts of joy were 
heard. Prayers and old-fashioned Methodist songs and 
love feast meetings, where the brethren and sisters 
would meet and relate their Christian experiences, made 
those little log cabins seem "Heavenly places." 



REMINISCENCES. 153 

All the good people who first came and helped to 
make this country great and prosperous were not Meth- 
odists, though a considerable portion of them were Meth- 
odists of the old stamp. The first church erected in Os- 
kaloosa was by the Cumberland Presbyterians. In the 
very early days they were more numerous than any other 
denomination. They built their church in 1846, and at 
that time had a large membership, but in 1849 so many of 
them went to California their church here was almost 
broken up. Other branches of the Presbyterian Church 
were represented by good and substantial families, whose 
children and grandchildren are among Mahaska's best 
citizens to-day. There were a few Baptists here, and in 
the Spring of 1845 there was a society organized in Smith 
& Cameron's new" frame store building, on Lot 1, Block 
28, o. p., Oskaloosa. Mr. Post weis the minister. 

The red man's bark huts were still standing in Kish- 
kekosh, and his footprints scarcely washed out by the 
rain, when a little colony of Quakers appeared on the 
scene and located on one of the most beautiful and fer- 
tile spots to be found in Mahaska County. Quakers are 
and always have been Orthodox in principle, devout in 
their allegiance to Christ. Quakers were first to discover 
that women had brains; the first to emancipate women 
from church slavery and place them side by side with 
men in the ministry and all affairs of church. Among 
their fundamental principles are freedom and justice. 
Quakers make good citizens. They establish and carry 
on good schools, and add to the prosperity of any com- 
munity wherein they establish themselves in any consid- 
erable numbers. They never permitted their members 



154 MAHASKA COUNTY 

to buy and sell men and women. No denomination has 
done more to enhance business, prosperity, education 
and moral culture in Mahaska County than the Quakers. 

Much is said in these days about the sacrifices made 
by the families of early settlers. They did break sod, 
make rails, cook, eat and sleep all in one room; they 
sometimes went many miles in order to procure corn 
meal to make bread, which things were somewhat incon- 
venient, but there was very little sacrifice about it. If 
we who were the actors on that early stage were making" 
sacrifices, we were not conscious of it. Not many of us 
had been accustomed to luxuries before we came. Those 
who had been accustomed to better things before they 
came, seemed to accept the situation cheerfully. I don't 
remember of hearing any talk of "sacrifice" in the early 
days. We had many things which in these days are called 
luxuries; we had wild turkey and quail, and venison and 
prairie chicken; we had blackberries and wild gooseber- 
ries and strawberries, and an endless variety of plums. 
There was very little suffering for want of food. 

The more I think about the pioneer men and women 
the more I admire their character. I can hardly recall a 
man or woman among them who was not honest, honor- 
able, brave, hospitable, high-souled. The most of them 
have joined the great majority, but if we look about 
us we will see some of Mahaska's best citizens among 
their descendants. 

Saturday, October 13, 1894. 



REMINISCENCES. 155 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The next time I went to Oskaloosa was some time 
toward the last of November. There was g"oing- to be 
meeting- in Purvine's tavern, held by the Cumberland 
Presbyterians. The Martins being members of that 
church, and as was their custom, informed me of the 
meeting- and proposed going; but when the Sunday morn- 
ing came, Patterson came by my uncle's and informed us 
that something had happened which prevented Amanda 
from going, but he had decided to walk, and knew a near- 
er cut to town than any we had gone before. Phillis was 
at my disposal, as usual, so I mounted Phillis, and Pat- 
terson walked ahead, along that newly-blazed path I fol- 
lowed. We crossed Spring Creek near the place where 
the bridge on the road to Carbonado is now. We came 
through timber the most of the way. On reaching the 
open prairie the most charming view opened out to my 
vision that I had seen in Mahaska County, and I had seen 
a good many. Just after leaving the main timber our 
road led between two small groves. The leaves had fall- 
en — every tree stood out clear of any undergrowth of 



156 MAHASKA COUNTY 

hazel or other bushes. There was none of that kind of 
small growth around there, and I thought of what my 
Aunt Delilah had said about that particular feature of 
the New Purchase, when we first came to Iowa. Just 
after passing those groves we were out on the broad open 
prairie. One of those groves was long known as "Picnic 
Grove." The one just west of it has been known to Os- 
kaloosa people by different names: "The Phillips Grove," 
"The Hawkins Grove," and so forth, and now an ugly coal 
shaft disfigures the spot once so beautiful. A little way 
to the southwest the little village of Oskaloosa loomed 
up, not as I had seen it a few weeks before, but instead 
of only a few log cabins there seemed to be dozens of 
frame houses, all painted white. Off to the north was 
that most beautiful of all places around Oskaloosa, when 
in its native state. Gently sloping to the east, a back- 
ground to the north of fine timber, at the foot of the slope 
to the west ran a babbling little brook, whose banks were 
lined with willows and other trees which delight the eye. 
That spot which looked so charming to me on that No- 
vember Indian Summer day, afterwards was the first 
home of myself and the husband of my youth. I had no 
idea who the owner was when I ft'rst saw it, but the place 
had a fascination, and I just gazed and thought "How 
beautiful!" No wonder I had some cloudy foresight into 
the future, for there my young husband and I went to 
housekeeping; there my two sons were born; there sleep 
my precious dead, and there I expect to sleep my last, 
long sleep. Although nearly fifty-five years have come 
and gone, I remember all that scene of charming land- 
scape, and my thoughts as it broke upon my vision, as 



REMINISCENCES. ] 57 

clearly as if it was j^esterday. The way Mr. Martin 
looked as he walked along ahead. Mr. Martin was a 
small man, but he vralked with a quick, elastic step. 
Very little liad been said as we wended our way alon<^ 
that l)lazed path, as he was g"enerally a rod or two ahead, 
but when that scene and the town loomed up in plain 
sight, he turned around and remarked, with a look of 
pride in his face: "Oskaloosa is beginning to look like a 
town, ain't it?" 

When we came into the town we saw that a number 
of houses had been built around the public square. On 
the north side of the square was what seemed a very long 
store building with a store already in it; how fine it 
looked. That store was owned by A. J. Davis, the man 
over whose millions there has been so mmch litigation in 
Montana. George Jennison and a boy named Frank 
Reeves had charge of the store. Another frame building 
which was painted white had just been built on the w^est 
side of the square was ov^aied and occupied as a store of 
general merchandise by Wm. B. Street. Of course I 
didn't see those people and their stocks of goods that 
Sunday, but afterwards. 

Mr. Charles Purvine had his tavern up on the east 
side of the square and there w^as where the meeting was 
held. The house was only weatherboarded and covered; 
there was no floor, and only studding where the parti- 
tions were going to be. The workmen's benches were in 
and shavings about on the gTound. That was an old- 
fashioned frame with hewed sills and posts, and the joists 
or sleepers were not in for the floor. The ground was 
bare all inside of the house; seats were improvised of 



158 MAHASKA COUNTY 

blocks with planks laid on them. A row of young" men 
sat on a carpenter's work-bench, with shaving-s thick 
around their feet. John W. Jones was among" those who 
sat on the work-bench. The house was full of people 
and they had come from far and near. A number were 
there from Six Mile, as a funeral sermon in memory of a 
Mr. Wilson, who had died several months before on Six 
Mile, was to be preached by Rev. Baxter Bonham. 

It seems to have been thought by some ministers in 
that day, that to cause violent weeping and wailing 
among the audience, especially the friends of the dead, 
was the proper thing to do in preaching a funeral sermon. 
Mr. Bonham seems to have been of the class who enter- 
tained this idea. He came to that meeting prepared to 
operate on the tender sympathies of his audience. His 
supply of touching incidents was great; his emotional 
eloquence not only set his audience to weeping, but set 
him to weeping himself, and he fell into such a fit of 
weeping that he was compelled to stop talking and just 
stand there and weep. The situation became embarrass- 
ing, so much so that after a few moments he apologized 
to the audience, informing them that his love for the de- 
ceased was so great and his grief so intense that he could 
not restrain his tears. 

By the time winter had fairly set in, Mr. Purvine had 
his tavern in running order, and was prepared to enter- 
tain the traveling public and all those doctors and law- 
yers who were homeless. That tavern was a story and a 
half with four good-sized rooms on the first floor and one 
big room up stairs with six beds in it. Mr. Purvine's 
was the first tavern built in Oskaloosa, though Mr. Can- 



REMINISCENCES. 159 

field did keep what was called a tavern a little while. 
The Canflelds kept the judg"e and lawyers who held court 
the Summer before. Many funny incidents used to be 
related of the Canfields' tribulations in trying" to provide 
for that functon. Mr. Pur vine kept that tavern only a 
few months, wdien in the Summer of 1845 he sold out to 
Jerry Brown and Thomas J. Willis. ^ Mr. Willis was not 
married, but held a valuable claim some three or four 
miles east of town, which he traded to Mr. Purvine in 
that tavern deed. W^hen I first came to Mahaska County 
Mr. Willis and Mr. Wm. B. Campbell were keeping bach- 
elors' hall jointly, both improving claims. If they were 
not adjoining, they were very near tog^ether. Mr. Camp- 
bell is one of the few who live where they first settled. 
He married Miss Sarah Lucetta Dunl)ar in 1847. They 
have always been respected and useful members of soci- 
ety. Their son, Walter Campbell, is an honorable and 
prosperous business man and a respected citizen of Oska- 
loosa. Walter Campbell's wife, who was Miss Mollie 
Moreland, is one of Oskaloosa's brig"htest women. 

Mrs. Jerry Brown, wife of Mr. Willis' partner, died 
soon after moving into the tavern. Mr. Willis went to 
the Galena lead mines, w^here his health failed and he 
died in 1846. The Purvine tavern was on the g^round 
where the Downing House now stands, Lot 5, Block 19, o. p. 
That hostelry changed owners frequently in the first few 
years of its existence. In 1852 Mr. J. M. White pur- 
chased it and for a while it was kept by Mr. Hug^h Mc- 
Neely, w^ho, in partnership with John R. Needham, in 
1850 printed the first newspaper ever printed in Oska- 
lo(?sa. That was the beginning of Tlie Oskaloosa Herald. 



160 MAHASKA COUNTY 

I read the first issue of that paper and have read nearly 
every one since. That first issue of Tli? Herald was a 
small affair, but fully up to other things in that early day. 
I remember well how eagerly I seized that little sheet 
and never stopper! until I had read every advertisement 
and everything else on it. I was so proud to know that 
Oskaloosa could afford a newspaper. In these days when 
newspapers are lying about in heaps and piles in almost 
every house, my thoughts go back to a time when we 
hardly ever saw a newspaper; when by any chance one 
would fall into my hands I would read it over and over 
again. Though some of the articles therein were too 
deep for my comprehension I would read them any way. 

In the Autumn of 1844, when I was teaching that 
first school, Tom Springer sent me a periodical called 
The lUuininafed Magazine^ and published in London. 
Mr. Springer was the eldest son of Matthew Springer, 
one of the men who located a claim at Mahaska Center 
in 1843, thinking the county seat would be located there. 
The Springers were people of more than ordinary intelli- 
gence, not satisfied with the commonplace, and possessed 
of force of character.- Matthew Springer was an enter- 
taining talker, an unselfish, kind-hearted man. His chil- 
dren were bright, intelligent and respectable. T<mi, 
when a young man, learned the printing trade in Indiana. 
I was not very well acquainted with him personally, but 
used to hear people speak of him as a talented young 
man, and when he was kind enough to send me that mag- 
agine, no wonder I was pleased and felt flattered. I 
kept that magazine for years laid away among my few 
sacred keepsakes, but finally some ruthless hand ele- 



REMINISCENCES. 161 

stroyed it. That bring"s to my mind an incident which 
happened j^ears ag"(3. I had carefully saved for years 
every number of a literary paper which I prized very 
much for the short articles therein, written by Henry 
Ward Beecher, Fanny Fern, and other spicy writers. I 
contemplated, when I should find a convenient season, 
cutting" out those g"ems of wit and wisdom and ])lacing' 
them in a scrap-book. I had, folded them and arrang^ed 
them in regular order, tied them securely in bundles and 
put them away on a shelf in a closet up-stairs. I had 
placed them in perfectly even la3^ers, wrapped a string- 
around the short way and then around the long way and 
tied it g-ood and tig"ht, for I had a vague idea that there 
were persons even in this intelligent reg^ion who didn't 
value one old newspaper more than another. I felt that 
I had guarded my treasure safely against any such unap- 
preciative creatures. But, alas! I w^as doomed to disap- 
pointment. One day I had a Negro man and his wdfe 
cleaning my upper rooms. After leaving them alone sev- 
eral, hours I went up-stairs to see how" they were getting 
along. I found them busily engaged in polishing win- 
dows, and my treasured papers all over the floor in torn 
piles and wads, a ruined mass. I could have cried with 
vexation, and when I tried to explain to them the ruin 
they had wrought, they gazed at me in blank astonish- 
ment, and all they had to say was: "Why, Missus, we 
nevah knowed dem dah ole papahs wuz any 'count only 
ter rub winders!" Tom Springer's Ilhuainated Maga?:ine 
went something in the same way. 

The articles in that magazine were on subjects en- 
tirely too abstruse to be understood by a mind so crude 



162 MAHASKA COUNTY 

as mine was then, thoug"h I remember one article in which 
the writer commented very satirically on the ceremony 
which had just occurred at the christening- of one of the 
little princes, son of Queen Victoria. He told of the fab- 
ulous sums ex]3ended on that infant's honiton lace robes 
which had been prepared expressly for that occasion, in 
which his sponsors renounced the world, the flesh and 
the devil. The writer seemed to think that honiton lace 
robes costing thousands of pounds was a pretty expensive 
outfit in which to renounce the world. 

Tom Springer went to California in the early time of 
gold excitement, was editor and proprietor of a paper 
there, and at one time was State printer. I knew Mat- 
thew Springer in Indiana when I was a little girl. The 
Springers were descendants of the "whale fishers" of 
Nantucket, the Coffins, Macys, and so forth. Persons 
versed in the history of the early settling of America 
knaw what manner of people those Nantucket whale fish- 
ers were— enterprising, fearless, brave and honest. "A 
law unto themselves." Matthew Springer was born in 
the 18th century, was married three times and had three 
sets of children. Not long ago I had the pleasure of 
meeting the son of his old age, Matthew, Jr., and his 
charming wife. I could see in Matthew, Jr., the looks 
and the tastes of the old stock. 

Mrs. Sarah Boswell, an aged lady whom everybody 
loves and calls ''Aunt Sade," a niece of Matthew Springer 
Sr., has for more than forty-eight years been an honored 
citizen of Oskaloosa. A pillar in the Methodist Church 
and truly a "Mother in Israel." Mrs. Boswell is the 
daughter of Job Springer, who was sheriff of Jasper 



REMINISCENCES. . 163 

County, Iowa, in the early days. Mrs. David Evans, an- 
other daughter of Job Springer, lives in Newton now and 
is a lovely lady. ''Aunt Sade" has never been blessed 
with a child of her very own, but has nursed, brought up, 
cared for and loved more orphaned brothers and sisters, 
nieces and nephews than any woman I ever knew. Her 
house has been a refuge for the homeless, whether of her 
ow^n kin or not. Her hands, her voice, her means have 
been employed in words of comfort and acts of benevo- 
lence. Aunt Sade is a woman of many gifts; she is many 
sided, and can adapt herself to almost any circumstance. 
She is at home wdth the cultured, the wealthy, the 
learned, and can, if occasion requires, mingle with the 
lowly and destitute, and even the criminal without at all 
losing her self-respect or self-possession. Her husband, 
Isaac Boswell, has been sleeping many years in Forest 
Cemetery. I remember well when they came to Oska- 
loosa, a young and handsome couple, full of life and hope 
and honest purpose. They lived and w^orked together in 
harmony. Aunt Sade has endured her lonely widow^hood 
with patience, courage and Christian resignation. She 
is away past three score and ten, and is just waiting for 
the Lord to take her where we think she will find treas- 
ure upon treasure. 

In the Fall of 1843 Mr. A. G. Phillips, of Morgan 
County, Illinois; having heard much of the beauty and 
natural advantages of the New Purchase, decided to come 
and see for himself if the glowing stories he had heard 
were true. When he came he found an old acquaintance 
in the person of Felix Gessford the possessor of a very 
fine claim, which he proposed to sell, and Mr. Phillips 



164 MAHASKA COUNTY 

bought it. That claim embraced a half section, which 
was the amount of land one man was allowed to hold as a 
claim. By some means he procured eighty acres more 
adjoining which he held for his oldest son until the son 
would be of age, which would be on February 18th, 1844, 
Mr. Phillips' claim embraced much of what is thought to 
be the most beautiful part of Oskaloosa— the southeast- 
ern, eastern and northeastern portion; it also included 
what is now Forest Cemetery. In the early Spring of 
'44 Mr. Phillips and wife, with their family of four sons 
and three daughters, came in wagons to Iowa Territory, 
arriving at the place called The Narrows, on April 22nd. 
There was just one house then on the spot where Oska- 
loosa now stands. One of their w^agons was drawn by 
four yoke of oxen, the other by two horses. The horse 
wagon carried the tent, bed, cooking utensils, and in which 
the family rode when they desired to do so. They drove 
some loose cattle through, and had some extra horses on 
which the children rode when they chose to. The ox 
wagon, which would hold almost as much as a railroad 
car, contained their household furniture, farming imple- 
ments, and as they supposed, enough provisions to last 
the family until they could raise a crop. Mr. Phillips 
had lain in a large supply of breadstuff, bacon and dried 
apples, bushels of corn meal and six barrels of flour, all 
six barrels being intact when they ended their journey 
and called out "whoa" to that long string of oxen, on the 
spot where Oskaloosa's park, or public square, now is. 

There were a number of families living within two or 
three miles in different directions, who it seems had all 
heard that the Phillipses were coming, and had bread, or 



REMINISCENCES. 165 

the material to make bread. Those families had come 
the year before and many of them were out of bread. The 
Phillips boys had hardly g"otten their oxen mihitched and 
turned out to graze when their father called them to come 
and unload a barrel of Hour and knock in the head, for 
people were standing" around waiting" for Hour, or meal, 
or something" to make bread of, with pans, buckets and 
pillow cases. When they had deposited the barrel on the 
fresh, clean grass, Watson, one of the sons, took an axe, 
broke in the head, imd laid that white, temipting mass 
open to their view. One tall, slim fellow from "Hoosier 
Bend," exclaimed: 'STeemeses River! that makes my mouth 
water. I haint tasted a biscuit for six months!'' 

Mr. Phillips, as he stood by enjoying the scene and 
the remarks made by one and another, said: "Now, Wat, 
g"et something to dip this out with, and gentlemen, come 
on and be helped." Wat went to the wagon and got a 
half-gallon tin cup and commenced dipping into that flour 
and pouring into their various receptacles. They kept 
on coming and Wat kept on dipping until that barrel was 
empty. Mr. Phillips asked no question in regard to name 
or location, but permitted each man to take as much as 
he wanted. Nobody counted the tinfuls nor said any- 
thing about weighing, but just put flour into their pans, 
buckets and sacks until they said enough. I have heard 
the Phillipses say that they believe every ounce of that 
flour was returned, though some of it was a long time 
coming. A year and a half after that flour episode a 
man came one day to the Phillips home, bringing about 
a gallon of flour in a pillow case. They had no recollec- 
tion of the man, l)ut he informed them that he was one of 



166 MAHxVSKA COUNTY 

the persons who had borrowed flour of them on the day 
of their arrival, and this was the first opportunity they 
had had of returning it, and he was much oblig^ed to 
them. The Phillipses lived in their tent and wagons a 
few days, while the boys repaired to the timber down on 
Spring Creek and cut and hewed a set of house-logs. 

When it was known that they were ready to raise 
their house nearly all the men in the country volunteered 
to help them, and stood by them until the house was 
ready to live in. Their first floor was of bark peeled oft' 
of big elm trees in great big strips and laid flat on the 
ground with the rough side up. That was rather a poor 
floor, but was better than the bare ground. The Phil- 
lipses brought a large cooking-stove with them, which 
was placed in that cabin. The pipe was not very safely 
fixed in the clapboard roof, and one day the stovepipe 
became overheated and set the roof on fire, which threat- 
ened to render the family roofiess, but they were fortu- 
nate enough to extinguish the fire before any great dam- 
age was done. I have heard it said that was the first 
cooking-stove brought to Oskaloosa. 

There was no Oskaloosa then, but the town was loca- 
ted soon after the Phillips family came, which was a 
source of great rejoicing, not only to that famil}^ but to 
everybody who owned claims round about The Narrows. 
When Mr. James Seevers heard that the commissioners 
had selected this spot he threw up his hat and exclaimed: 
"Proud Mahaska!" and that is the way Proud Mahaska 
originated. Mr. Seevers was a quiet, undemonstrative 
man, but that was an occasion on which he felt called 
upon to do something a little out of the usual way. 



REMINISCENCES. 167 

Mr. Phillips first built his house in one of those 
groves, the one I went into ecstacies over on that Sunday 
morning' when Mr. Martin was piloting me over that new 
road to Oskaloosa. Early in the Fall after the town 
was located and a road was laid out leading east from the 
town, called the Fairfield road, and running through Mr. 
Phillips' land, he moved his house nearer town and on 
that road. His land did not quite touch the original 
town quarter, but was not far from it. The place where 
he placed his house was what is now the intersection of 
Sixth Street and Second Avenue. He added another log 
house to it with a covered entry between; the family 
were then the proud possessors of a double log house. I 
can't think of another family in all this region who had 
two rooms at that time, except the McMurrays. 

Mr. and Mrs. Phillips and some of the other families 
around felt that their children ought to be having the 
advantages of a school. So the Phillipses permitted the 
east room of that house to be used for that purpose, and 
in the winter of '44 and '45 a gentleman by the name of 
Caldwell taught in that room the very first school ever 
taught on the ground where the town of Oskaloosa now 
stands. In the Summer of 1845 James Johnson, a brother 
of Allen Johnson, the minister, taught a school in an un- 
finished frame house belonging to Levi Smith. That 
house was located on Lot 2, Block 28, o. p., or more defi- 
nitely speaking, on the lot where Howard's grocery and 
the Blue Front are. In 1845 I taught a school in the 
same house I taught the first school in. I began on the 
first Monday in April and taught three months on the 
same terms I tausrht the first. Several families had 



168 MAHASKA COUNTY 

moved in that Spring' and my school was increased in 
numbers. 

In the Winter of '44 and '45 the government survey- 
ors used that school-liouse for a camp. I don't think 
they asked anybody's permission, but just took posses- 
sion. I don't know how they managed to sleep in that 
cold place, but they did sleep there and cook by that sod 
fireplace. When I went back to teach in the Spring there 
were many evidences of the house having been inhabited. 
There were streaks of tallow on the walls, the drippings 
from candles which had been fastened there with jack- 
knife or forked stick. Evidently they had used my 
writing-desk for a kitchen table, for those puncheons 
once so clean and white I found all covered* with spots of 
grease. Their ruthlessness, or the wintry blasts, had 
played havoc with my oiled paper windows. Not a pane 
was left intact. Only a few liuttering strips of greasy 
paper were left clinging to that ingeniously-constructed 
window sash. 

On my visits to Oskaloosa I had become acquainted 
with nearly all the first settlers in the town and all around. 
It wasn't much trouble to get acquainted then. Folks 
didn't stand on ceremony, but were glad to get acquainted 
any way they could. I don't mean to convey the idea 
that there was no discriminating between respectability 
and disregard for the decencies of life, but no one was 
shunned on account of poverty or for having little book 
learning. The greater number of the first settlers were 
poor and became poorer as regards food and raiment be- 
fore they began to reap the fruits of their early struggles. 
The most of them were fairly well educated for that day, 



REMINISCENCES. 169 

but occasionally could be found men and women of real 
worth who could neither read nor write. 

There were no beggars here in early days. People 
would borrow of their neighbors and return the things 
borrowed, but to beg was a thing too degrading to be 
thought of. To offer a family food or clothing as a gift 
because they were thought to be too poor to provide for 
themselves would have been considered an offense. They 
were too high-spirited to be counted objects of benevo- 
lence. They would rather have worn patches and lived 
on corn bread and turnips. When Oskaloosa had four or 
five hundred inhabitants and two taverns, the landlady 
of one was talking to another lady about the great waste 
of food in her house. She said, "In my pantry is nearly a 
barrel of bread, not mouldy, only dry; we can't use it 
and it seems too good to feed to pigs." The other lady 
said, "Can't you give it to somebody?.' The landlady re- 
plied, "I would be glad to give it away, but I don't know 
a family in this town I would dare to offer it to." I had 
read and heard of beggars, but I had kept house for 
twenty-five years before there ever was a beggar came to 
my door, with the exception of a few straggling Indians. 

There were no mills in this region for a year or two 
after the country began to be settled, and when the 
people began to run out of bread somebody would go 
with a big ox wagon aw^ay down toward the Mississippi 
river and bring back a big lot of corn meal and perhaps 
a small quantity of flour. In that way they supplied a 
whole neighborhood, and when the supply would run low 
again somebody else would go. By the time the second 
crop of corn was raised there were two mills on Skunk 



170 MAHASKA COUNTY 

river, each about four miles from Oskaloosa. One was 
built by a man by the name of Duncan and the other by a 
man named Comstock. Mr. Comstock's son, Captain 
Comstock, lives now near the place where that mill was 
built. A few years ago Captain Comstock laid out and 
improved a beautiful park along the river, and called it 
"Riverside Park." He made circuitous drives, had boats 
on the river, built a boat-house and pavilions, and did 
many other things for the accommodation and pleasure 
of his patrons. 

The Mr. Bonham whom I have mentioned as the man 
who delivered that memorable funeral oration was a son- 
in-law of John Cameron, who was a prominent minister 
in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cameron 
and his numerous family came to Oskaloosa in 1845. He 
had ten daughters and one son. That son, Thomas Cam- 
eron, was one of the proprietors of the firm of Smith & 
Cameron, who established one of the first stores; some 
say the first. Others have told me that the Jones Broth- 
ers were the first. I know that on my first visit to Oska- 
loosa both of these mercantile houses were among the 
fifteen cabins which I counted. Mrs. Cameron's daugh- 
ters were nearly all married. The whole set, sons-in-law 
and all, came to Oskaloosa in the course of a year or two 
after the first settlement. Mrs. Purvine, wife of the 
first tavern keeper, was Mrs. Cameron's daughter. The 
whole Cameron family without a single exception, sons- 
in-law and daughter-in-law, were members of the same 
church. Mr. Berry, one of the sons-in-law, built the 
front part of the house where Dr. Wiley lived; which was 
one of the first, if not the first, brick house built in Oska- 



REMINISCENCES. 171 

loosa. They all came here with the purpose of locating- 
permanently, but in 1848 gold was discovered in Cali- 
fornia. In that gold excitement, with others, the whole 
Cameron family except one daughter, Mrs. Lister, sold 
out and in 1849 went across the plains to California. 

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was strong for 
so new a county. They had the only church building' in 
Oskaloosa, and when the Cameron family all went off at 
once it came near breaking up the society. That church 
was located on Lots 5 and 6, Block 36, O. P. Patterson 
Martin and his brother, Silas, furnished the timber, hewed 
the sills, and hauled and placed them on the ground for 
that church. I remember seeing them in the summer of 
1846 hauling those long sills from what was called "Skunk 
river timber." Dr. Hugg owns that house now and has 
converted it into a pretty and comfortable dwelling". The 
members of that church were ambitious enough to want 
a bell, and a bell was procured in Keokuk and hauled 
from there in a two-horse wagon, and it was so arranged 
on a frame that it rang all the way from Keokuk to Oska- 
loosa. We heard the bell ringing as it came up the lane 
just east of town. We all went out to the fence to see 
what it meant, and I well remember the look of pride on 
that driver's face as he passed the gazing group. 

One of the prominent families among the first inhab- 
itants was the Jones family. Mrs. Jones, an elderly 
lady, was a widow with an unmarried son and a daughter. 
John W. Jones was a handsome young man; tall and 
straight, with dark hair and eyes. His eyes always had 
a twinkle, for he was brim-full of mischief and humor 
and always had a joke ready. The Joneses were all tall 



172 MAHASKA COUNTY 

and straight and handsome, with dark hair and eyes and 
fine complexions. George W. Jones was married before 
he came and his wife was a handsome woman. These 
brothers were together in business and were successful 
merchants in Oskaloosa for many years. John W. was 
elected state treasurer during the war of the rebellion. 
For many years the homes of these brothers were in Des 
Moines, where both died a few years ago. Mrs. Jones, 
their mother, died in Oskaloosa in the Autumn of 1845. 
Sarah, the daughter, was a young girl when they came 
here. She was as fair as a lily, and as witty and pos- 
sessed of as much genuine, solid humor as her brother 
John. She married Mr. Samuel McWilliams. Mrs. Mc- 
Williams has been a widow many years, but is blessed 
with three charming daughters and a son, Gus McWil- 
liams, a talented young business man, who recently re- 
signed a lucrative position in an honorable and responsible 
business to enlist in one of Uncle Sam's fighting squad- 
rons. Mrs. McWilliams has reason to be proud of her 
daughters, who were all wise enough to choose fine bus- 
iness men for husbands. Two of them are engaged in 
raising citrons and other fruits near Tampa, Florida. 
Mrs. McWilliams' eldest daughter, Ellen, was one of the 
bright girls of Oskaloosa College in its palmiest days. 
Her school days were hardly over when she was married 
to Mr. Chamberlain, who was not only possessed of 
wealth as regards this world's goods, but is endowed 
with honor and every other quality which goes to make a 
manly man. They are a broad minded pair and have 
traveled much. Mrs. Chamberlain, as I said before, was 
a brisrht irirl in school; but when she laid aside her school 



REMINISCENCES. 173 

books and united her life and future prospects with that 
excellent man, Mr. Chamberlain, mental culture with her 
had only fairly beg-un. She has gone on from one degree 
of development to another until we find 'her at what is 
termed "middle age'' a spicy writer, and a brilliant 
talker before audiences of brilliant men and women. Mrs. 
Mc Williams, though well advanced in years, is a stately 
looking woman, and can relate more incidents of the 
early days than anybody I know; especially if there was 
a ludicrous side to the event she relates it in an amusing- 
style. 

There were a great many families came and settled 
in Oskaloosa in 1845. The Hetheringtons; Dr. Owen, 
who was a practicing physican here for forty years; Geo. 
Baer and family, whose son John Baer is a citizen of 
Oskaloosa to-day. George Baer was a tailor by trade, 
and built ■ and occupied a small frame shop on the west 
side of the square. That shop w^as burned in the first 
fire which ever occurred in the town. The Roops also 
came in '45. Benjamin Roop and wife came here with a 
family of five daughters and one son. David Roop was 
the son. Mary, the eldest daughter, married R. R. Har- 
bour, a mechanic, a bricklayer by occupation. It w^as 
soon discovered that Mr. Harbour was a young man of 
more than ordinary mental ability. He was elected to 
the State Senate soon after Iowa became a State. One 
of Mr. Harbour's sons, whom we all called "Jetf" when 
a boy, is now on the editorial staff of the "Youth's Com- 
panion" and resides in Boston. Another son of the Har- 
bours is a member of the Senate in Utah. The Harbour 
children are all bright. 



174 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Benjamin Roop and family came from Ohio, and it 
is said they only had a few dollars when they landed in 
Oskaloosa. Mr. Roop was an energetic and shrewd bus- 
iness man, and in a very few years had erected ^nd was 
running- a large distillery and flouring mill. The distillery 
has Jong since gone into oblivion, but the flouring mill 
stands there yet grinding wheat for the multitude, and 
is now known as "Siebel's Mill." Mr. Roop in the late 
forties built what was thought then to be a fine two-story 
and basement frame dwelling on North A street. That 
house is now owned and occupied by a family by the 
name of Avey. Mr. Roop flourished and grew rich so 
fast that in two or three years after he built near his mill 
a very large and commodious brick dwelling house. That 
house was built in the early fifties, and was at that time 
supposed to be one of the finest private residences in 
Iowa. It has changed owners many times, and has been 
occupied by many different parties as a hotel. Mr. 
Roop's daughters were every one practical, sensible, 
splendid women. 

In 1845 Orson Kinsman built a two-story frame on 
the southwest corner of the square (Lot 8, Block 20) for 
a tavern, and called it "The Oskaloosa House." Mr. 
Kinsman kept that house about a year and then sold it in 
the Spring of '46 to Wm. Dart, from Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 
Mr. Dart kept a drug store in one room of that hotel, 
which was the first drug store in Oskaloosa. Before that 
the doctors kept a stock of medicine by them. Mr. Dart 
sold that hostelry in a year or so to Mr. John N. Kins- 
man, a brother to Orson. Property changed hands fre- 
quently in those days. If anybody wanted to sell there 



REMINISCENCES 175 

was no troul)le in finding" a pnrcliaser. John N. Kins- 
man's fnll name was John Newton Kinsman, and he was 
one of the commissioners that located tlie town of New- 
ton, county seat of Jasper County, and Newton was 
named after Mr. Kinsman. Mr. and Mrs. John N. Kins- 
man were excellent peo])le, honored and beloved by all 
wdio knew them; they sleep side by side in White Oak 
cemetery. 

Mr. A. S. Nichols came in 1844 and built a dwelling" 
house and blacksmith shop on West Hig-h avenue. He 
worked at his trade in the early days and made money. 
Mrs. Nichols' sister, Mrs. Shepherd, a handsome young" 
widow, came to Oskaloosa in the early times. She and 
her two little boys had a home with the Nicholses. Mrs. 
Shepherd married Dr. Porter, and they both died many 
years ag^o. One of Mrs. Shepherd's sons. Will Shepherd, 
has long" been a resident of San Buena Ventura, Cali- 
fornia. He is a lawyer and was once in partnership with 
Hon. John F. Lacey, and has several times been in the 
newspaper business. Mrs. Shepherd, who w^as Miss 
Theodocia Hall, daug'hter of Judg^e Hall, a prominent man 
in Iowa years ago, but who has long" since passed aw^ay. 
Mrs. Shepherd is a niece of Mrs. Judge Seevers, and is 
a florist of national reputation; notices of her work, her 
bulbs and flowers, are frequently to be seen in the news- 
papers. Time brings about strange revolutions in fami- 
lies and communities as well as nations. The Roops who 
did so much in the early days to build up Oskaloosa are 
scattered here and there, and not one of the original 
family are citizens of Oskaloosa to-day. Mr. and Mrs. 
Roop and some of their children sleep their last sleep. 



176 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XIV. 

In the early summer of 1845, when I had finished my 
second term of school in that much mentioned first school- 
house and collected a few dollars, I made a visit to Oska- 
loosa; my main object being" to invest these few dollars 
in dry goods for my own personal use and adornment. A 
good plain road had been cleared out by that time and 
the distance shortened, so that it was a small matter to 
walk to town, which I did with ease. I was then staying" 
with my cousins, Dr. Hobbs and wife. Their home w^as 
on what is known as the "Wing farm" now, and a part of 
the Carbonado coal lands. When I started on that trip 
to town it was a perfect summer morning. The birds 
were singing as I tripped through the woods and crossed 
that little babbling brook called Spring Creek. When I 
had climbed the hill, there I was, with Oskaloosa spread 
out in full view. Oskaloosa had spread out and looked 
like a pretty big town. The Smiths, the Camerons, the 
Weatherfords, the Joneses, the Purvines, and others had 
treated me with great kindness and had invited me time 
and again to visit them. About the first person I met on 



REMINISCENCES. 177 

reaching" the square was Dr. Weatherford, who gave me 
such a cordial invitation that I went liome with him. 
Mrs. Weatherford was a lovely lady, full of genuine hos- 
pitality. They had just moved into their new frame 
house on the west side of the square. The house had 
three rooms and was on the ground where the Golden 
Eagle clothing store now is. After dinner I visited A. 
J. Davis' store, bought two calico dresses and a pair of 
picnic mits. Then I visited Mr. James Johnson's 
school, wdiich was kept in an unfinished dwelling-house 
on the south side of the public square. Mr. Johnson's 
school was composed of about twenty scholars. x\t that 
school I met Rachel Phillips, a young girl about thirteen, 
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Phillips. I had become 
a little acquainted with Rachel and her older sister, Mar- 
tha, on my previous visits to Oskaloosa. Rachel asked 
me how long I was going to be in town. I told her I 
was going home the next morning, and she exacted of me 
a promise to call at their house, as my road led by it. 
I had met so many pleasant people and had such a pleas- 
ant time, that when I started out the next morning I had 
forgotten my promise to Rachel until I was just by the 
house. When it came to my mind I turned about and 
started toward the house, where I met Mr. Phillips just 
coming out. He met me in the most friendly manner, 
shook hands, led me in and introduced me to his wife, 
who was friendly like the rest. Martha and Rachel, 
their father and mother all joined in an urgent invitation 
to stay and take dinner with them and not go home until 
late in the afternoon. Martha and Rachel, before I had 
entirely decided to stay, commenced relieving me of my 

12 



178 MAHASKA COUNTY 

wraps and bundles, and as a further inducement told me 
that Mary Mosier was coming to spend the afternoon and 
help them quilt, and we would have a splendid time. 
The quilt was hanging- in the frames, and I thought I 
was a good quilter, and liked to quilt, so I stayed. The 
Phillipses were originally from Kentucky, and had lived 
in a neighborhood of Kentuckians in Illinois. They were 
possessed of the typical Kentucky hospitality. Mr. and 
Mrs. Phillips were not old people, though they had 
grown-up children. They both were between forty and 
fifty. 

Musical instruments such as are seen in almost every 
house now were unknown to the "New Purchase" folks 
then, but people could sing without instruments. Mr. 
Phillips was one of the old-time singing teachers. He 
was a good singer and all his family could sing. At the 
time I am speaking of he was leader of a society of 
young people who met every Friday evening at -the 
court house to practice singing, and that was the young 
people's chief means of entertainment. I hadn't been 
there long that day when Mr. Phillips broughts out a pile 
of music books and proposed that we have some singing. 
He told one of the girls to go and tell her brothers to 
come in. Those brothers were young men. The elder, 
Thomas Gorrell, was called ''Gorrell," and the other, 
John Watson, was never called anything but "Wat" in 
the family. I had seen those young men at church but 
had not become acquainted with them more than just to 
speak. Gorrell was the young man whose voice had at- 
tracted my attention at the McMurray meeting the year 
before. Those young men were engaged in walling a 



REMINISCENCES. 179 

well with rock a little way from the house. Rachel came 
back and reported that the boys demurred; said their 
clothes were all covered with mud, and they were not in 
a suitable plight to meet a strang-e young lady. Their 
father said, "Tell them to come along and never mind the 
mud.'' I thought it my time to say something, so I said: 
"Rachel, tell your brothers not to mind me; I don't ex- 
pect men to be dressed in their Sunday clothes when they 
are walling wells." They came in then and we all sang. 
The young men seemed a little ill at ease on account of 
their muddy clothes, and after we had sung a few pieces 
they hitched up a team and went to Skunk river for 
more rock. 

After dinner Mary Mosier came and we four girls 
gathered around that quilt; we laughed and talked and 
quilted. Mary Mosier was rather a bright girl, and the 
daughter of a widow who owned and lived on a claim just 
south of town. Their house was on the hill just south- 
east of "South Spring Mill." There was no mill there 
then, but the big spring was there. Mary Mosier mar- 
ried M. T. Peters, a young lawyer located in Oskaloosa. 
Mr. Peters was an industrious and smart young attorney, 
and was making a good start in his profession; but when 
gold was discovered in California he was siezed with the 
gold fever, packed up, and with his wife and baby crossed 
the plains to California. 

The day which I have been telling about and its 
seeming trivial occurrences which I have related, lead to 
things of much more importance to me and many others 
than I ever dreamed of when I called at the Phillips 
home that summer morning. After we had talked a 



J 80 MAHASKA COUNTY 

while, and sang" a while, and the boys had gone to Skunk 
river for stone, Mr. Phillips asked me if I would like to 
teach a school in Oskaloosa. I replied, "If I could get a 
school and a place to teach, I would be glad to do so," 
He said, "There will be no trouble about that. 1 know 
of a house which is unoccupied, the Methodist parsonage: 
I will furnish live pupils, which will be a good beginning, 
and there are several families who will patronize your 
school. If you say you will teach, T will get the house 
and the scholars." I had never had things in that line 
made quite so easy. Before I left that afternoon things 
were all arranged. I was to come to their house the 
next Friday, have my article ready, go to the singing at 
the court house with the family, stay all nig'ht, and Sat- 
urday all the arrangements for my school w^ould be made. 
I told Mr. Phillips I felt under obligations to him and 
was thankful for his kindness, when he replied: "I don't 
want you to think I am doing- this disinterestedly. I feel 
that you will be doing me as great a favor in teaching my 
children as I am doing you in assisting you to get 
the school." When I mentioned a boarding-place, 
they all said I should board there: that their family was 
j)retty large, but one more wouldn't make much differ- 
ence. When I started home late in the afternoon the 
girls went with me nearly a mile. We sat down on the 
grass and talked a while, and in that talk it was ag-reed 
that when I came up on Friday, Martha and I would 
spend the afternoon with Mary Mosier and go from there 
to the singing society in the court house. 

I went on home with my mind full of the day's 
events. I was charmed with the Phillips family; their 



REMINISCENCES. 181 

g^enuine whole-souled sociability and hospitality just 
suited me. I saw so little of the youn<;" men that day 
that I didn't think much about them. But the father, 
mother, and daufj^hters! In fact, when I went that morn- 
ing" the young" men in the family never entered my mind: 
I only thought of the girls. When I told the doctor and 
his wife of my adventure, they were pleased and con- 
gratulated me. The next day I v/ent over to my uncle's 
and told them all about it and they were jileased, too. 

I wrote my article of agreement, placing' my price 
at two dollars per scholar, as Mr. Phillips had advised 
me to do, made one of my calico dresses, and when the 
next Friday morning" came, donned that new calico dress 
and hied me away to Oskaloosa where I found the Phil- 
lips family expecting" me and ready to greet me with a 
cordial welcome. Mr. Phillips took my article, went out 
in town and in an hour or two came back with nine schol- 
ars subscribed besides his own. John White, Stephen 
Gessford, Henry Blackburn, D. S. Canfieid and Leper 
Smith had signed the article. Then I took it and went 
to Esquire Edmundson and Dr. Weatherford, who both 
became my patrons, and I had the promise in ''black and 
white" of seventeen scholars. Some others declined to 
sign the article, but said they would send their children 
to school and I could keep an account of the time. I 
don't know how that Methodist parsonage came to be 
vacated, but it was and I taught that school in it free of 
rent. I suppose it was considered common property. It 
was a good deal better than the first school-house; it had 
one glass window, a very good door, and a fireplace lined 
with stone and a stone hearth. Mr. Phillips had some 



182 MAHASKA COUNTY 

benches put in and a slanting shelf for a writing-desk 
placed along the side of the window ways. That little 
log house was about fifteen feet square, the logs were 
hewed and the puncheon floor was quite nicely fitted 
down. The Methodist tolks had taken pains to make 
their minister's home as nice as any cabin in the country. 
There was a well near the door, too, which everybody 
didn't have then. That building was located on the 
northeast corner of the intersection of A Avenue and 
Third Street. Dr. Beaudry's elegant home is located on 
the spot where that cabin stood. 

The families who lived nearest the school were the 
Hetheringtons. who lived in a log house at the intersec- 
tion of A Avenue and Third Street, and the Edmundson 
family who lived on the lot where the Catholic Church is 
located, Lots 7 and 8, Block 18, o. p., Oskaloosa. The 
Edmundsons lived in a cabin with wide fireplace, lined 
with stone. The chimney from the fireplace up was 
made of mud and sticks. I was taken into the Phillips 
family to board, and everything being satisfactorily ar- 
ranged I began my school on Monday, September 8th, 
1845. There were five of the Phillips children in my 
school. There were Martha, Rachel, Sam, Joan and 
James, usually called "Jim." Everybody knows where 
the John White place is. Well, Edmond and Mary White 
were there promptly every morning, coming diagonally 
across hills and hollows about a mile. Edmond died at 
twenty-five, and Mary wiis thirteen when she died. Two 
of the Canfield children, Ellen and Oscar, Henry Black- 
burn's two little girls, Hettie and Cassie, Leper Smith's 
daughter Euphemia, three of the Gessford children. Dr. 



REMINISCENCES 183 

Weatherford's daug-hter Mary and son Willie, some of 
the Hethering-ton children and the Camerons dropped in 
occasionally, but the little Edmundson boys, Jimmie and 
Willie, were there every day. Their father, William Ed- 
mundson, Esquire Edmundson as he was called, was one 
of the best known and most respected of Mahaska's first 
settlers. He was appointed justice of the peace in the 
beginning- of thing's here, and was elected Mahaska's first 
sheriff. I heard Mr. Edmundson spoken of often before 
I ever saw him, and everybody seemed to have a word of 
praise for him who mentioned his name. 

While I was teaching that school I became quite well 
acquainted with the whole family. It consisted of Mat- 
thew and William Edmundson, who were both widowers: 
their mother, Mrs. Edmundson, who was a very ag-ed lady, 
or at least we young- folks thoug"ht her quite ag'ed. We 
thought everybody old if they were past fift}^ Most 
people called her "Grandmother Edmundson" wlien 
speaking- of her, and when addressing her called lier 
"grandmother." I don't think I assumed that liberty, 
but when I had occasion to address her I let "Mrs. Ed- 
mundson'' suffice. Then there were Mrs. Edmundson's 
unmarried daughter, Margaret; Matthew's daughter, 
Mary, a girl some twelve or thirteen years old; and Wil- 
liam's two little boys, Jimmie and Willie. The Edmund- 
son home being- on my road to school and also on my way 
to town, I often called in and had many a pleasant and 
profitable visit with Mrs. Edmundson and her daughter. 
Mrs. Edmundson was one of the brig-htest and most in- 
teresting old ladies I ever met. She had had a wonder- 
ful and varied experience which she would relate in an 



184 MAHASKA COUNTY 

entertaining" manner. She was born in Greenbriar 
County, Virginia, in 1768. She went to Kentucky when 
a girl and rode all the way on horseback. I have heard 
her tell of the hardships they endured in the first settling- 
of Kentucky, where they were weeks without bread, and 
lived in a state of terror for fear of being" devoured by 
wild beasts or massacred by the Indians. Mrs. Edmund- 
son was well on toward eighty when I first became ac- 
quainted with her, but showed no sign of imbecility. She 
had fed her mind and taken an interest in youngs people 
and the things which were happening in the world, and 
by so doing had retained her mental faculties. I used to 
tell her that her grandsons were among" the nicest be- 
haved bo3^s I ever saw, and that I never had occasion to 
reprove them in school. She would reply, "Well, they 
ought to be good boys, for they had as nice a mother as 
boys ever had, but they were so young" Vv^hen she died that 
they will not rember much about her." 

The mother of these little boys was a Miss Depew, 
sister of Wesley Depew, who in the early days was a cit- 
izen of Oskaloosa. Another Depew, brother to Wesley 
and Mrs. Edmundson, married a sister of Micajah Wil- 
liams. He made a claim immediately north of the orig-- 
inal "town quarter." That Mr. Depew died in the early 
days and never improved any part of his land. It was 
owned by his heirs a great many years, and went by the 
name of the "Depew^ eig"hty." The children, Jimmie 
and W^illie, must have been very young when their mother 
died, for she died before their father came to Mahaska 
County in 1843. 

William Edmundson was rather tall, slender, and 



RExMINISCENCES. 185 

straight. His complexion was neither li<rht nor dark; his 
manners were g'entle, never loud nor boisterous, digni- 
fied yet easily approached; he was well informed, an in- 
teresting- talker but a good listener, and was witty without 
being sarcastic. When another was talking, he didn't 
interrupt him or her in the middle of a sentence, but po- 
litely waited until they were through. He was generous 
and obliging, and was the owner of the only buggy in 
Oskaloosa at the tirrie of which I am writing. He would 
lend it to the young fellows to take their girls driving, 
and when Micajah T. Williams and Virginia Seevers were 
married they made their bridal trip to Mt. Pleasant in 
that buggy. 

Mr. Edmundson was a Kentuckian, with the charac- 
teristics attributed to the gentlemen of the ''Blue grass 
region.'' He was polite and courteous to laidies, but 
paid no special attention to any; yet he was ready to 
render any little kindness to his young men friends who 
did. I have heard it said that he was the possessor of 
the only respectable overcoat in the town in the winter 
of '44 and '45, and would lend it around among his less 
fortunate young friends. The young men of the town 
were in the liabit of congregating in A. J. Davis' store 
on winter evenings, and when Mr. Edmundson would 
come in from his official trips around and through the 
country he was sure to find some young fellow there who 
wanted to go to see his girl, waiting for that overcoat. 
He became so accustomed to supplying that particular 
want that immediately upon entering that resort he, 
without an}^ ceremon}^, would smilingly doff' that useful 
article of wearing apparel and hand it over to the one 



186 MAHASKA COUNTY 

whose turn it seemed to be to wear it. Frank Reeves, 
a handsome, brig-ht and witty boy, some eighteen or nine- 
teen years old, was a clerk in Mr. Davis' store. Frank 
was a g^eneral favorite and was permitted to say about 
what he pleased. When one of those young- fellows on a 
winter evening would walk into the store and look about 
and seem to be restless, Frank was ^pt to remark: "Be 
patient, Mr. , I think the Squire will be in soon. I 

am expecting' him every minute." 

The Edmundson family stands out conspicuously 
among- my recollections of the days when Oskaloosa was 
an infant. Matthew was quiet in his ways, but was an 
intellig"ent Christian g^entleman. His daughter Mary 
married Mr. Frank Alumbaugh, who it was said could 
repeat volumes of poetry from memory, and was a poet 
himself. I once went to hear John G. Saxe read some of 
his own productions. Mr. Alumbaugh was in the audi- 
ence, and after Mr. Saxe had finished his proposed read- 
ings Mr. Alumbaugh requested him to recite his "Proud 
Miss McBride." Mr. Saxe remarked: "To please the 
gentleman I will try it, though it has been so long since 
I thought of that particular effort I am not sure that I 
can repeat the lines correctly, but feeling confident that 
I understand the author's meaning, I will make the 
effort." He did make the eft'ort, but after reciting a 
verse or two he halted; he had forgotten his lines. Mr. 
Alumbaugh came to the rescue and kindly prompted him. 
Then without another failure he finished "Proud Miss 
McBride." 

Mrs. Edmundson, mother of Matthew and William, 
died in her ninety-fifth year. She was not only an inter- 



REMINISCENCES. 187 

estiiig" talker, but was endowed with great good sense. 
She was a devout member of the Christian Church. I 
presume she had much to do with shaping the characters 
of her grandsons, James and William, who have done 
honor to their ancestors. James is and has for many 
years been one of Council Bluffs' most prominent and 
successful citizens; he is a man of jjleasing manners, line 
taste and highly cultivated mind. He and his charming 
wife are enjoying the historic scenes and wonders on the 
other side of the Atlantic, and at the present writing 
(June 29, 1898), are somewhere in Europe, Asia or Africa. 
I received a paper from him the otlier day printed in 
Rome. William chose the science of medicine as a pro- 
fession, and I understand that he is a successful practi- 
tioner in Denver, Colorado. I never think or hear of 
their success without a feeling of pride. I don't take to 
myself the credit of having done much toward shaping 
the characters of these Edmundson brothers, but when 
anybody speaks of them in my presence I am pretty apt 
to mention their once having gone to school to me. 
James and William are all that are left of that interesting 
family. When I drive about the winding ways of Forest 
Cemetery, the spot so sacred and so dear to many of us, 
I see on its eastern slope, neath the shade of native oaks 
and elms, a massive gray stone, beautifully carved. On 
every side are beautifully-polished panels, whereon are 
engraved letters and Hgures telling the passers-by the 
names, the dates of birth, and the dates of death of var- 
ious members of the Edmundson familv. 



188 MAHASKA COUNTY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Majors family came in 1844 from Morgan County, 
Ills., near the place where the Phillipses came from, and 
made a large claim in the extreme west part of Mahaska 
County. Mr. Majors died soon after they came, leaving 
a widow and a large family of children. Their two sons, 
Jacob and John P., were men. Their widowed daughter, 
Mrs. Louisa Majors Lyons, came with them. There was 
another daughter, Nancy, a young lady. There were two 
sons and two daughters not grown. 

The Phillips family and the Majors family were 
friends in Illinois, and after coming to the "New Pur- 
chase" their friendly relations continued. The young 
people sometimes visited each other, though the Majorses 
lived some fourteen miles west of Oskaloosa. They 
didn't have carriages and buggies then, but almost every 
young man owned a good horse, saddle, and bridle. The 
girls thought nothing of mounting a spirited horse and 
cantering off fourteen or fifteen miles over the prairies. 
After I had taught a week of that school, and it was Sat- 
urday, Sept IHth, the Phillips young people, or Gorrell 



REMINISCENCES. 189 

and Martha, proposed to visit the Majorses and invited 
me to ^o with them. I was anxious enough to go, but 
felt a little reluctance in thrusting myself on entire 
strangers. I mentioned that fact, but they assured me 
that any friend of theirs would be more than welcome at 
the ^Majors home. It was soon settled, for I was very 
glad of a chance to go; and another thing was, I had be- 
gun to think that Gorrell Phillips was a pretty nice young 
man. After the matter of my going had been settled, 
Gorrell said, ''I will go and see Johnson Edgar, as he has 
been wanting to make the acquaintance of Nancy Majors, 
and I will invite him to go with us." Gorrell Hew off up 
town and was back in a little bit. Johnson was more 
than pleased and would be ready to join us when the time 
came to go. Johnson Edgar was a nice young man, a 
carpenter by trade; was a brother to Mrs. A. S. Nichols 
and an uncle to Rev. Snowden — a man well known in 
Iowa, and highly esteemed as a minister in the Congre- 
gational Church. Mr. vSnowden looks much like his uncle, 
Johnson Edgar. 

Mr. Phillips owned several good horses. Among 
them was a high-headed, spirited bay which they called 
"Bill,^' which Mr. Phillips offered to me. I said, "Per- 
haps Martha will want Bill." Bill was my choice, but I 
didn't want to seem anxious about it. "Oh, no," said 
Mr. Phillips, "Martha claims 'Kit' and wouldn't ride any 
other." "Kit" was a fine sorrel mare with a heavy fore- 
top which always seemed to be hanging over her eyes. I 
asked Gorrell one day why he didn't trim Kit's foretop; 
it looked like it was in the way of her seeing. "Oh, no," 
he said, "That would spoil her looks. It always parts in 



190 MAHASKA COUNTY 

the rig-ht place and don't interfere with her seeing-. "" 
GorrelKs horse was a fiery young- chestnut sorrel named 
"Tinker." Tinker had never had harness on, and was 
only used as a saddle horse. He was young and wild and 
tricky, and was hard to mount, but Gorrell was a fine 
horseman and felt safe enough when once on his back, 
though as soon as he struck the saddle Tinker would rear 
and pitch and jump and look like he was going to do 
something terrible, but never succeeded in unseating his 
rider. When the time came for us to start on that wild 
ride, Mr. Johnson Edgar was there on a handsome black 
horse with more gentle manners than Tinker, but full of 
life and ready enough to go. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon we all mounted 
our horses, the family all standing out by the fence to 
see us off. While Tinker was getting over his tantrum, 
Mr. Phillips came and examined our girths and surcingles 
to be sure that all was safe, then said, ''Now, girls, when 
you get out of town you needn't be afraid to let your 
horses go; you can't hurt them." We didn't need en- 
couragement to let our horses go, but I suppose Mr. 
Phillips wanted to let us know that he didn't care how 
fast we ran his horses. When Tinker had settled down to 
a respectabe gait, Gorrell and I took the lead. Bill bowed 
his neck, held his head high in the air, and assumed a 
stately step; but with all his airs, wasn't dangerous. 

Our horses were all on their mettle, but we managed 
to keep them at a moderate gait as we rode along Main 
Street on the south side of the public square where sev- 
eral of (mr young men friends were sitting in front of the 
stores. The town of Oskaloosa at that time was of such 



REMINISCENCES. 191 

narrow limits that a thing of so much importance as that 
equestrian excursion was very soon known by the most 
remote inhabitant. We were not at all surprised — in 
fact, we expected to see men, women and children out to 
see the procession. Our spirits were so buoyant and we 
were on such excellent terms with ourselv^es, and were 
expecting" such a good time that we imagined everybody, 
especially those young men in front of the stores, were 
looking on us with eyes of envy. After leaving the town 
we only passed two houses before reaching the Majors 
place. One was Judge White's, about a mile out south- 
west, on the place which has since become a coal mining 
town called Acme, and a little cabin in a grove about five 
miles out, a little south of west. The road wound about 
on the high ground and was one unbroken stretch of 
prairie all that fourteen miles. The little cabin which 
we saw was some distance from the road and we could 
just see its clapboard roof above the bushes. I never 
knew who lived there. There was a plain road all the 
way, though it had not been traveled sufficiently to wear 
out the grass entirely. The sloughs were not washed 
into deep gutters then, but were covered with sod; there 
was not a field nor fence between Judge White's farm and 
the Majors ])lace, but one unbroken stretch of undulating 
prairie. People had their choice of ground to travel on. 

There was quite a settlement about where the Majors 
lived — not near neighbors, but in that region. On that 
September day the weather was all that could be desired, 
and the road was splendid all the way. Occasionally we 
would come to a long piece of level road, then we would 
give our horses a tap with the whip and away we would 



192 MAHASKA COUNTY 

go on a full runfor perhaps a mile; then we would slow 
up for a little while until we came to another level stretch 
and off we would go again. With all that dashing and 
running, no accident happened to us. We never raised 
the sweat on our horses, nor did they seem tired when 
we reached the Majors farm, which we did a long time 
before night. We dashed over that fourteen miles of 
charming prairie solitude without meeting a single human 
being, nor even any tame animal. Once we saw two deer 
scampering over toward the Des Moines river timber, and 
a gray wolf jumped out of the grass a little way ahead 
of us and v/ent loping over toward the north. Gorrell 
said, ''If I was out here alone on_ Tinker, with a good 
club, I would run that wolf down and kill it." I remarked 
to him: "I think that would be something of a feat to 
run a wolf down with a horse." "Oh!" he said, ''That 
has been done often; I killed one that way myself. I was 
down toward White Oak grove on Tinker one morning 
hunting our oxen. I had an ox-whip with a long lash and 
a short club of a handle, when a wolf jumped up just in 
front of me and started out on the prairie on a long lope, 
I let Tinker out and he fairly flew after that wolf. I 
wound that whip-lash around my arm and siezed that club 
of a handle in my hand. We soon began to gain on that 
wolf, and when we had run about a mile we were right on 
him. Tinker struck him with his fore-feet and the wolf 
commenced snapping at the horse's legs. I reached 
down and struck him a blow on the head with that club 
which stunned him; then Tinker and I soon flnished him." 

The Majorses were not expecting us, but received us 
with all the demonstrations of hospitality and smiling 



REiAIINISCENCES. 193 

friendliness that was possible to show visitors. Mrs. 
Majors, with her sons and daughters, all came out to 
meet us, and when Mr, Edg^ar and I were introduced, re- 
ceived us like we had been their dearest friends. If I 
had had any misgiving's about being an intruder they 
would have been dispelled at once. The Majors famil}^ 
were the most comfortably fixed for living of any famil}^ 
I had yet seen in this wild, new country. There was a 
look of comfort and restf ulness all about the place. They 
had a great big liouse with one immense room down 
stairs, and some kind of arrangement for sleeping above. 
That big room had in it four beds all made up nicel}^ with 
snowy pillows and clean patchwork quilts. The walls 
were whitewashed as white as snow; there was no' carpet 
on the floor, but tlie puncheons were scrubbed as clean 
as a floor could be made. There were plenty of old- 
fashioned splint- bottomed chairs, a shelf on the wall with 
a looking-glass above it: a Bible and some other books 
were on the shelf. Under the shelf was a table with a 
clean white cloth spread on it, where was a glass pitcher 
in which was placed an immense boquet of old-fashioned 
flowers intermingled with sprigs of asparagus. I glanced 
about that room and thought, "how clean and fresh and 
comfortable everything looks." A little way from that 
big log house was another of less pretentions which was 
used as a kitchen and dining-room; there was the big 
wide fireplace with crane and hooks, and when we were 
all invited out to supper we were seated at a long table 
with snowy cloth and a supper good enough for a king. 
The Majors home outside and in was a scene of rustic 
beauty. The masses of morning-glories and c\'press 

13 



194 MAHASKA COUNTY 

vines and flower beans climbed and wound themselves in 
fantastic shapes about the windows and clear up to the 
eaves. 

The Majors women, like the most of farmers' wives 
and daughters in that day, spun and wove. The old- 
fashioned loom was a rather unsightly piece of furniture, 
but seemed to be indispensable in a well regulated far- 
mer's home. I had seen many a loom-house, but never 
one quite so unique as the Majors'. Just a roof w^as 
built out from the kitchen, and in place of the sides being 
enclosed with lumber or any other solid kind of wall, 
morning-glory vines were trained all around except an 
opening for a door. Instead of an unsightly shed, that 
loom-house was made a bower of rustic beauty. I think 
I never saw anywhere but in the Majors garden so many 
of the old-fashioned flowers. There hadn't been frost 
enough to kill them, though it was near the middle of 
September. The Majors men took as much pride and 
pains to make that rustic home attractive as did the 
women. The men did not neglect the more substantial 
things pertaining to farming. Their immense fields of 
big, tall corn, with long ears hanging, and yellow pump- 
kins almost covering the ground, gave evidence that 
something had been done besides raising flowers. It was 
easy to raise corn and pum]ikins and morning-glories in 
that day, for the ground was new and rich and mellow, 
without a single weed to be seen anywhere. 

Gorrell, Martha, and I enjoyed ourselves amazingly, 
but Mr. Edgar's visit was somewhat interfered with by 
Miss Nancy Majcn's having to divide her attentions be- 
tween himself and another young gentleman who seemed 



REMINISCENCES. 195 

to have gone there with the self-same purpose. The 
other gentleman, whose name was Clark, was a very fine 
looking young man; was tall and straight, wdth dark hair 
and eyes; was dressed in a nicely fitting and handsome 
suit of black broadcloth. I thought him a handsimie man. 
Mr. Clark lived somewhere in that region and perhaps 
lives there yet, with that nice dark hair all turned white. 
For all I know his children and grandchildren may be 
living about him, and he with spectacles on may be spend- 
ing these summer mornings in an easy chair on his porch, 
reading about Cervera's awful defeat and Hawaii's an- 
nexation. I have never seen Mr. Clark from that day to 
this, and I don't think Mr. Edgar made any more visits 
to the Majors place, but married another girl. He has 
long been sleeping with his fathers. 

We young folks spent the evening out in the yard and 
among the flowers, talking nonsense which we imagined 
was the most brilliant repartee. When the time came to 
retire, we were taken into that big room which we found 
all partitioned off with white curtains. Each one of those 
four beds was in a cozy little room all to itself. The 
Majors women seemed to be equal to any emergency. I 
never go into a sleeping car without being reminded of 
that night at the Majors place. Sometimes my young- 
lady friends get me to telling about the way people lived 
and managed in those days of crudeness, when men and 
w^omen and children all lived and slept in a single room. 
I tell them that the people who first settled this part of 
Iowa had good sense, good principles, and lots of tact, 
and could adapt themselves to circumstances. Women 
whose circumstances made it necessary for them to live in 



196 MAHASKA COUNTY 

a cabin of one room were as modest and self-respecting' 
as they are to-day in elegant homes where every individ- 
ual member of a household has his or her own room. In 
those pioneer times when people did as they could and 
not as they would, men were imbued with the kind of 
chivalry which forbids the thought of taking advantage 
of circumstances such as I have reference to. The chiv- 
alry which shields and protects- women; the chivalry that 
women admire in men. 

The government surveyors were encamped in the 
Majors neighborhood at the time we were there. A young 
man belonging to the surveying party was taken sick and 
was brought to the Majors home and Dr. Warren sent for. 
I have not forgotten Dr. Warren's kind voice and gentle 
ways as he bent over emd talked to that sick young man; 
nor those Majors men's tenderness toward him. Mrs. 
Majors had him placed in one of her snowy soft feather 
beds, and she and her daughters brought dainty things to 
tempt his appetite. After spending a day and a night at 
that charming and hospitable home, we again mounted 
our steeds and had another wild and daring ride back to 
Oskaloosa. 

The reason we saw so few people and habitations on 
that long ride was, our road was out on the open prairie. 
In that early day, people settled in or near the timber; no 
one ventured far out on the prairie. They knew the land 
was all right, but in winter prairies were bleak, and the 
northwest winds were piercing where there was not a 
tree to break their force. The first settlers were obliged 
to Imild their houses of logs, use wood for fuel and make 
rails to fence their farms. They had to build strong 



REMINISCENCES. 107 

staked and ridered fences. Many of the early settlers 
had long' strings of oxen to break the sod; 4;hose oxen 
were turned loose when not at work, to get their living 
wherever the prairie grass suited them best; it took a 
mighty strong fence to keep those oxen out of a corn- 
field. There were no laws then to prevent stock of all 
kinds from running at large. All that could be done on 
that line was to make their fences as high and strong as 
the}^ could; under those circumstances the nearer they 
were to timber the better. No matter how beautiful the 
prairie looked, how rich the soil, or how well the land lay 
for cultivation, to live in a little cabin away out where 
there was not a tree to break the force of wintry storms 
nor shade one from Summer's scorching heat, was not a 
situation to be desired. But little by little, settlers 
ventured out on that charming expanse of rolling prairie 
and in a few years, from the Des Moines timber to the 
Skunk, the country was dotted over with houses and fields 
and tiny groves. It don't take long for trees to grow 
big enough to shade a house in this countr3\ If we 
should start out one of these Summer mornings t(^ drive to 
what was once the Majors place, it would be through 
lanes bordering a paradise of farms, with not only com- 
fortable homes, but homes of architectural beauty, 
surrounded by grassy lawns, kept like velvet, V\ith 
borders and beds of flowers all about, and graceful vines 
trained over shady, coz}^ verandas. Orchards of big, 
thrifty apple trees, full of apples, with not a dead limb 
nor caterpillar's nest to be seen in them; great fields of 
clover, red and fragrant; immense fields of waving corn 
just "laid by," when if you look as far as you can see be- 



198 MAHASKA COUNTY 

tween the rows— just from under the plow- not a weed 
to be seen, only the fresh, clean, mellow soil. There are 
fields of wheat, and fields of oats, and fields of potatoes, 
and pastures with herds of Jersey cows, some busily nip- 
ping- grass, others lazily chewing- their cuds under clumps 
of trees. There are great pens of black hogs looking- so 
much alike one can't tell them apart. Great big" sub- 
stantial barns and every kind of an out-house which it is 
possible to want. And besides all that, you would hardly 
think you were in a prairie country, trees are so numer- 
ous. This state of bounteous thrift does not alone 
abound on the way to the place once the Majors home, 
but in every direction; no matter which way you g"0 you 
can see the same evidences of prosperity. A state of 
beauty, comfort and luxury the first inhabitants never 
dreamed of. 

But I must go back to my school in that little cabin, 
the Methodist Parsonage, in September, 1845. The first 
great event after beginning that school was our first visit 
to the Majors ])lace; the next was Oskaloosa's first fire. 
On Wednesday, September 17th, as I was going- to my 
dinner, and had just reached the stile at the Phillips 
home, I heard a commotion up in town, and on looking 
around I saw flames leaping up from a house on the west 
side of the square. I called to the folks in the house 
and told them a house was on fire. I didn't g-o in, but 
went up town as fast as I could g-o, and found Dr. Weath- 
erford's house all in flames and their household goods 
piled and scattered about on the ground, the clock all 
broken to pieces. The nearest well was on the lot where 
the Merchants House now is (Lot 8, Block 21, o. p.. city 



REMINISCENCES. lV)9 

of Oskaloosa.) Men were running here and there in a 
state of frenzy; some ran to tlie stores and siezed all the 
buckets they could find, and commenced carrying" water 
from that well; the ground was clear between the burning 
burning and the w^ell I have mentioned. The first house 
south of the fire was Wm. B. Street's store, a small frame 
building; they kept throwing water on it and by hard 
work saved it. The house just north was George Baer's 
tailor shop, which was quite close; it took fire and was 
soon past saving. The house just north of the tailor 
shop was a cabinet shop, built of logs, and owned by a 
man named Parish Ellis. That was also entirely con- 
sumed. George W. and John W. Jones had a long frame 
store on the corner where Baldauf's store is now; that 
was scorched and began to blaze, but was saved with lit- 
tle damage. When I got to the fire I siezed a bucket 
and carried water as fast as I could. I was run- 
ning with a bucket of water when I met John Jones who 
snatched it out of my hand. I saw him run and dash it 
on their store just as the weatherboarding began to blaze. 
The Jones store was saved. John used to tell Gorrell 
that my bucket of water saved it. I don't deserve that 
credit, but John's gallantry was great. Just before that 
fire a Mrs. Wright had bought that house of Dr. Weath- 
erford, and I think they had some litigation over it. 

Mrs. Wright at the time owned and lived in a one- 
story frame house just back of Pickett's drug store. 
That same house is there to-day. She was a widow with 
two daughters — Anna and Levy. Perhaps her name was 
"Olivia," but I never heard her called anything but 
Levy. After that fire had sul)sided I noticed Anna 



200 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Wright looking- at the ruins as complacently as if nothing- 
serious had happened. She had a book under her arm. 
I went up to her and asked her what she was reading; 
she handed me the book and I saw it was ''The Wander- 
ing Jew," a book much talked of then. Anna married 
Henry Temple, a young lawyer of Oskaloosa, and Levy 
married Isaac Dickerson, a merchant. They all left Os- 
kaloosa long .ago, and when I last heard of them they 
were citizens of Atlantic, Iowa. 

As 1 was going home from that fire I met Virginia 
Seevers and her cousin. Miss Anna Wilkins, who had seen 
the fire from their home a mile away and had come to see 
the ruins. The next morning Gorrell came in with an 
excited look and exclaimed: 

"What do you think! Cage and Virginia were mar- 
ried this morning and have gone to Mt. Pleasant!'" A 
wedding in those days was not attended with much cere- 
mony. 

My school went along smoothly. We young folks 
assembled every Friday morning at the court-house and 
Mr. Phillips led us in singing. We attended meeting 
every Sunday, as there were services held by one denom- 
ination or another regularly in the court-house, which 
was the only public building of any kind in the town until 
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was built, which 
was in 1846. Young men displayed their gallantry by 
escorting the girls to and from those singing schools. 
Gorrell and I soon become quite good friends, and he 
never let me lack for an escort. Our friendship before a 
great while culminated into something more serious, and 
before that scliool closed we were engaged to be married. 



REMINISCENCES. 201 

When my school closed I went back to the home of my 
relatives, where I made my simple and un])retentious 
wedding- outfit, and on Sunday night, January 18th, 1846, 
we were married by the Rev. Thomas Kirkpatrick, a 
Methodist minister who was holding a two days' meeting 
in that court-house. No invitations were issued to that 
wedding. We just went in, walked up tov/ard the ros- 
trum, where the minister met us, and the marriage cere- 
mony was performed before the religious services began. 
I think I could tell this story better if it was about some 
one else. 

Gorrell's father and mother received me into their 
family just like one of their very own children, and we 
lived with them until the next October. My mother-in- 
law was one of the loveliest women I ever knew; she was 
gentle, kind and unselfish, a Methodist of the old stamp. 
Her maiden name was Hannah Sinclair, The Sinclairs 
were all Methodists from away back. Her brother John 
Sinclair was a pioneer Methodist preacher in Illinois 
along with Peter Cartwright, Peter Acres, and others 
whose trials and hardships and eccentric preaching- are 
matters of history, and no doubt had much to do in mak- 
ing Hlinois the great State it is to-day and her people the 
great people they are to-day. Through fire and flood, 
cold and hunger and self-denial, they sowed the seeds of 
righteous heroism which no doubt to-day is bearing fruit 
a hundred fold. 



202 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XVI. 

So many thing's which I want to tell happened in 
that year (1846) I can hardly decide on the thing to tell 
first. The Mexican war began, but no volunteers were 
called for in this region. Facilities for getting news 
were so poor that we didn't hear of a battle until it had 
been over for days. My father-in-law was quite well in- 
formed for that day, and something of a politician; he 
would get hold of a newspaper occasionally, and we all 
would gather around him eager to hear while he read the 
war news to us. I remember how he grieved when he 
heard of the death of Gen. Harden: he and Gen. Harden 
were friends in Illinois. 

Stephen A. Douglas was beginning to be known 
through the country as a brilliant young and rising poli- 
tician. Mr. Phillips knew him well, and used to regale 
us with stories of Douglas' smart sayings in debating so- 
cieties and other occasicms when he was a delicate strip- 
ling and a mechanic who made spinning-wheels in Jack- 
sonville. Mr. Phillips admired Mr. Douglas and liked 
him, but would have liked him better if he had been a 



REMINISCENCES. 203 

whig". Mr. Phillips was a whig; and in the summer of 
'46 was a candidate on the whig ticket for Judge of Pro- 
bate, but was defeated by John White. As there was no 
printing office anywhere in reach, the tickets had to be 
written. I think I wrote all the whig tickets used in the 
county at that election. I became very tired of that 
monotonous work, but my father-in-law kept me at it for 
three or four days, and wouldn't allow me to stop until I 
had written whig tickets all over one side of about a 
quire of foolscap paper. After I was supposed to have 
written enough I cut them all apart and did them up in 
packages to be sent out to all the voting places in the 
county. All that work was gratuitous, such a thing as 
remuneration never entering my mind; and to think that 
after all that writing, and writing, and writing whig 
tickets, my father-in-law was beaten. John White, the 
successful candidate, lived about a mile southwest of 
town. In 18.53 Judge White was thrown from a sulky or 
gig and his leg was broken A day or two after, Dr. 
Hopkins amputated it and he died in two or three days 
after the operation. 

In the Spring of 1846 there was a great exodus of 
Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois. Their Prophet, Joseph 
Smith, was killed in '44 by a mob, and the whole set were 
ordered to leave the State. They were given time to 
dispose of their effects and pack up and go to some other 
country. Some of their shrewd and wise ones had dis- 
covered a country beautiful and productive away to the 
southwest, where they supposed they could go and settle 
and live and practice their peculiar religious rites with- 
out being disturbed by the laws of any State. So in the 



204 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Spring" of '46 they made a grand rush for what they called 
the ''Promised Land/' For weeks in that Spring" and 
early Summer, train after train of those people with their 
white covered wagons could be seen slowly wending- their 
way along the lane by my father-in-law's house and 
through Oskaloosa. If one chanced to speak to one of 
them they didn't seem at all inclined to be sociable, but 
were uncommunicative, sullen and morose. They often 
boug-ht corn of Mr. Phillips, but were not inclined to 
talk only of the business in hand. "They were seeking 
a country" where, when they reached it, "they builded 
better than they knew.'' 

One rainy, muddy evening in that Spring- a colony of 
Swedes, about fifty in number, came driving- up and 
wanted shelter. They were a forlorn looking set, and 
some of them were sick. Not one could speak a word of 
Eng-lish, except a man who was conducting" them to their 
destination, and another young man who was fine-looking- 
and had princely manners. He had golden hair and com- 
plexion like a g-irl, was tall, straight and dig-nified and 
looked like a lord among a lot of beggars. The man who 
was conductor and interpreter informed us that this 
lordly-looking young man belonged to a Swedish family 
of wealth and high social standing, who had come to 
America with the rest on a tour of inspection. Mr. Phil- 
lips had a large barn just finished, where all those people 
slept that night except one woman who was sick. Mr. 
Phillips had a hadsome three-year-old filly, and in the 
morning that lordly-looking young man got his eye on 
her and proposed to purchase her. When Mr. Phillips 
told him he could have her for fifty dollars he just handed 



REMINISCENCES. 205 

him fifty dollars in brig"ht ^old pieces, mounted his filly 
and rode off. Those people, I heard, settled somewhere 
northwest of what was then called Ft. Des Moines. They 
were the first Swedes I ever saw. I have a pretty g'ood 
opinion of Swedes and Norwegians, but liave not forg'ot- 
ten my first experience with them, and the time we had 
cleaning- out the mud after that set had gone. 

One of the prominent events of that Summer was the 
kmd sales, which occurred on the Fourth of July. Al- 
most every man who ovv^ned a claim had a sack of silver 
coin buried or hidden in some way under their puncheon 
floors. How carefully they watched over and kept their 
little hoard. Some actually denied themselves and fam- 
ilies what now would be called the necessaries of life, in 
order to keep intact that little hoard. They knew to a 
cent just how much it contained, and knew that on that 
they were dependent for food, raiment and shelter; or at 
least for the land on which to produce those thing's. I 
have known families to deny themselves flour, sugar and 
cott'ee rather than break in on that bag- of silver under 
the floor. It was g'oing to take just so much to enter 
their land, and that amount must be kept intact whether 
they had biscuit and coffee or not. 

So on the morning of the third of Jul}^ nearly all the 
men in the south part of Mahaska County dug up their 
precious hidden treasures and started for Fairfield. The 
most of the men in Oskaloosa went whether they were 
going to enter land or not. Claim law^s were in vogue, 
and every man carried a stout hickory club to defend 
himself and neighbors against over-bidders. My father- 
in-law went and entered between three hundred and four 



206 MAHASKA COUNTY 

hundred acres lying- along the east side of Oskaloosa. 
That land extended nearly as far south as the Rock 
Island depot and north almost to Spring Creek. What 
is generally thought to be the most beautiful part of Os- 
kaloosa is on that land. 

My husband's claim was eig-hty acres; the north 
forty of that eighty is now Forest Cemetery. My hus- 
band had done the amount of work required on his claim 
in order to preempt, so he preempted his eighty, and 
the next year exactly to a day went to Fairfield and 
entered it at a dollar and a quarter an acre. He bor- 
rowed the money from the school fund commissioner, pay- 
ing- ten per cent interest on the same, and in addition to 
the one hundred dollars which was necessary to secure 
the eighty acres, he was compelled to borrow five dollars 
more to pay his expenses in making the trip to the land 
office. Money then was scarce and hard to obtain; people 
managed to live by trading- one commodity for another. 
Nearly all the money in the country was paid out for 
land to the government, and that had not been in circula- 
tion. The money obtained from the sale of sixteenth sec- 
tions went into the school fund and was loaned out, there 
being no regulations for a long- time to use it for school 
purposes. I used to heeu' it said that the sixteenth sec- 
tions nearly always happened to be valuable land. 

The first school whose teachers were })aid with 
money drawn from the school fund was taug-ht in the 
two-story brick school-house called "Gospel Ridge" 
school, in 1855. The first man elected as principal was a 
Mr. Goshorn, who died soon after accepting the position. 
He died in a house which stood on the southwest corner 



REMINISCENCES 207 

of First Avenue and Seventh Street, where Esquire 
Weaver lives. James Loughridj^e was the next principal. 
In 1855 Mr. Phillips, my father-in-law, had one hun- 
dred acres of land fenced and in cultivation; an immense 
staked and ridered fence enclosed the whole of it. A 
wide lane called the "Fairfield Road" divided it in about 
equal portions. My husband, his brother Wat and a 
hired man made all those rails, hauled them out and 
built that fence, high enough and strong enough to keep 
out any prairie-breaking team, no matter how breachy. 
That hired man came to Mr. Phdlips in the Spring of '45 
and olfered to do any kind of work on the farm for his 
board and washing and seven dollars a month in cash. 
Mr. Phillips hired him and kept him several months; the 
family used to say they never saw a better worker nor a 
more honorable man. The most of that hundred acres 
was broken in '44 and w^as just right for a crop in '45, 
which was a good season. The weather was favorable 
for early planting in the Spring, the Summer had just 
enough of rain, and frost stayed away long enough in the 
Fall for corn and everything else to mature. 

The Phillipses had an immense crop of corn, acres 
in shock and thousands of bushels in great high rail pens. 
It was easy to raise corn then — twice plowing was suffi- 
cient. The ground was new and rich and mellow, with 
not a weed to be seen; there were no weeds here to speak 
of for three or four years. I used to pine for the sight 
of a plaintain or a dandelion, and if I had come across a 
sprig of dog fennel by the roadside I think I would have 
gotten down and worshiped it. My heart fairly leaped 
with joy when I first saw a little patch of blue grass and 



208 MAHASKA COUNTY 

white clover. But before many years the streets in the 
little town of Oskaloosa were bordered with as luxuriant 
a growth of smartweed and dog- fennel as I had been ac- 
customed to seeing in the little towns in the old "Hoosier 
State."' In 1816 there was another bountiful crop raised 
of corn and wheat and oats, and such gardens and melons 
and pumpkins! There were few cattle and hogs to eat 
the corn, and no market to speak of where that great 
amount of stuff could be turned into money. My father- 
in-law kept what was called a wagon yard, and disposed 
of some of his surplus C()rn and oats to travelers, l)ut 
much of it was wasted. 

When I drive about the outskirts of Oskaloosa now 
and see boys by the dozen engaged in weeding onions in 
immense gardens, I think of a time when acres of onions 
could have been raised by merely leveling the ground 
and sowing the seed. No boys were needed to pull 
weeds; there would have been nothing but the clean 
ground, and every individual onion standing out and 
spreading itself. Wouldn't John Knight and the Kem- 
bles think they had a bonanza if their ground was like 
that nowV I don't mean to say that the ground is not 
rich to-day, for it is, but weeds will grow. 

Gorrell and I expected to go to housekeeping in the 
Spring, but father Phillips persuaded us to wait till Fall, 
wdien his barn would have been finished, the crop se- 
cured, and the boys, Gorrell and Watt, could then build 
us a little log house on our eighty acre claim. We all got 
along nicely at father Phillips', but how we did look for- 
ward to the time when we would have a home of our own. 
We knew our hcmie would have to be very scantily fur- 



REMINISCENC ES. 209 

nished, but we didn't mind tliat; homes generally in those 
days were humble and scantily furnished. Neither of 
us had ever been accustomed to luxuries, and were con- 
tent to begin in a very humble way. We were young 
then, and full of hope and energy; the world was before 
us, and we had each other. We would often walk down 
and look over the ground, and finally selected the spot 
where our house was to be built. The place we selected 
was not a wise choice, though it was the prettiest place 
in all the country — a charming body of timber to the 
north, the ground sloping to the east and to the west, a 
little clear brook at the foot of that western slope, and 
over the hill a stretch of prairie and groves which at sun- 
set was like a picture. To the south was a view of open 
prairie, and we could stand on that spot and see all over 
the little town of Oskaloosa. After that big barn was 
finished, the corn laid by, the wheat and oats stacked and 
the prairie hay cut and put in the barn, Gorrell and Wat 
went down into the timber and cut and hewed logs for 
our house. Wat was a natural mechanic and could do 
almost anything in the construction of a house as crude 
as that. Wat made the shingles to cover it, by hand. 
That house was a little more pretentious than many at 
that time, as it had a shingled roof and a brick chimney. 
R. R. Harbour built the chimney, which was a good one, 
had a nice fireplace and did not smoke. The floor, too, 
was made of plank instead of puncheon. Some saw-mills 
had by that time been built about through the country 
and a rough kind of lumber could be obtained. Our floor 
was of green oak plank just laid down without nailing. 
There was a door in the south and one in the north, one 

14 



210 MAHASKA COUNTY 

window in the south of nine panes of g^lass. There were 
cracks between the logs, but Gorreli fitted in pieces of 
wood to till them up, then g^ot sand and lime and made 
mortar and plastered the cracks over until the wall was 
quite smooth and tight. I said that Gorreli did that plas- 
tering, but will take that back, as I did part of it myself. 
I was so much interested in the building of that house I 
would go and look on and w^atch the progress of things, 
and when he commenced putting on that mortar, I as usual 
was hanging around. No one was there but ourselves, 
and I pro])osed to help him. He made some objection, 
but I persisted, took up the trowel and commenced laying 
on the mortar. I found it such delightful work that I 
just kept on, and wouldn't let him have the trowel, but 
kept calling out "mort" until I had plastered as high as 
I could reach. We didn't suppose there was a human 
being in a half mile of us, when suddenly we heard a 
horse's hoofs, and on looking • around we beheld John 
White sitting on his horse, whose head was fairly inside 
the door. "Hello!" said Mr. White, and seeing me with 
trowel in hand, wanted to know if I was helping to build 
the house, said he had thought all along that Gorreli had 
done well in marrying, but didn't imagine I was a house- 
builder, with all my other qualifications. He must have 
noticed our embarrassment, which instead of making him 
change the subject, led him on more and more in his 
quizzing remarks. 

I went down the branch below Hosier's spring and 
dug some white clay out of the bank and made a white- 
wash and applied it to the walls of my little log house, 
which made it as white as snow. I did that whitewashing 



REMINISCENCES. 211 

before we moved into the house. When that white clay 
iirst came out of the bank it was almost as hard as rock, 
but a few days' soaking" in water reduced it to the proper 
consistency. One day I went alone to that little new 
house and applied that solution to the walls as high up 
as I could reach when standing on the floor, then I made 
a scaffold of the logs which had been sawed out to make 
the doors, climbed up on it and finished it to the (I was 
going to say "ceiling," but there was no ceiling, only 
joists between the floor and roof), but I whitewashed to 
the top of the logs. It soon dried, and looked so white 
and clean, and I felt so proud of my work I just stood 
and gazed and admired, and kept thinking, ''Won't Gor- 
rell think this is nice?" The next day I took him down 
to look at it. Gorrell always praised anything I did, and 
when I showed him those white walls he couldn't say 
enough nice things. He would look around the room, 
and then look at me and break out with more praises. 

On the 14th of October, 1846, we moved into our little 
new cabin home. Though we had so few of what are 
called the necessaries of life, and none of what could by 
any means be considered luxuries, I think we were as 
happy as any young husband and wife ever were, even if 
started out in life surrounded with elegant home and ele- 
gant appointments. I discovered long ago that happi- 
ness does not depend on fine houses, fine furniture nor 
fine clothes. It didn't take us long to arrange our furni- 
ture; we had no carpet to tack down, but I did wish I 
had a strip or two of rag carpet. We set our bed up, 
which was quite respectable-looking, with nice pillows 
and patch-work quilt, and a clean, starched calico valence, 



212 MAHASKA COUNTY 

which stood out all around the bottom like a ruffle. 
There was a great deal of room under a bed in those 
days. It was a g"ood thing", too, that that style prevailed, 
for many unsightly things could be tucked under the bed 
and hidden by the valence. We learned in those days 
how to utilize room, and boxes and bundles could be 
stored away under the bed. Our cupboard consisted of 
some shelves without a door; there were strips to hold 
the plates up at the back of the shelves. I had some 
very pretty plates and didn't fail to set every individual 
plate so it would show to the best advantage; my cups 
and saucers, too, were made to show their best. I did 
have some pretty cups and saucers, and I am sure I 
would think them pretty to-day. They were decorated 
and had handles, were a mulberry color and a pretty 
shape. I had a set of knives and forks of which I was 
very proud. The handles were made of buck's horn, 
were of irregular shape, no two having the same curve. 
I think I was more anxious to have a respectable table 
than I was about any other detail of housekeeping. A 
box with curtain in front served the joint purpose of 
kitchen table and pot closet. I cooked by the fireplace, 
which was nothing new to me, as I was raised that way. 
When we commenced housekeeping we found ourselves 
without many things which seemed to be necessary. I 
had no rolling-pin at first, but had immense ears of corn, 
so I rolled my biscuit out with an ear of corn. I can 
shut my eyes now and see the prints of the grains in the 
dough. I did my washing at first in a dishpan and bucket; 
we carried water up that long slope from the little brook, 
but with it all we managed to be quite comf oi'table ; we 



REMINISCENCES. 213 

were well and strong and not afraid of work. The fnture 
looked bright, and we had no heartaches or fears about 
making a living. We were so satisfied with each other 
that it required but little besides to make us happy. 

Our house was located just where the prairie and 
timber meet. The woods back of our house was a dense 
forest almost unbroken to Skunk River. We used to 
hear wolves howl at night, but never thought of being 
afraid of them. I never heard of them attacking any- 
body about here. I was more afraid of snakes than any- 
thing else. I killed many a rattlesnake about on that 
ridge. One day as I was going out of the back door a 
rattlesnake was crawling toward the house and not more 
than two feet away from the door. It coiled and rattled 
—that sound always so terrifying. I would have killed 
it myself if nobody had been there but me, but Gorrell 
was and he put a quietus on it. It was nothing unusual 
then to hear of snakes crawling into people's cabins, but 
I never heard of any one being bitten around here by 
snakes crawling into their houses. I heard of a few out 
on the prairie being l)itten, but of only one person dying 
from rattlesnake bite in this part of Iowa, and that was 
a Mrs. Gray, in Harrison township. A little McAllister 
girl was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake in the Lough- 
ridge neighborhood in 1844. Her people applied such 
remedies as they had at hand, but before Dr. Hobbs got 
there she was unconscious and badly swollen. He saved 
her life by wrapping her from head to foot in a poultice 
made of corn meal and cold water. The poultice was 
changed often and the child got well and is living to-day. 
Dr. Hobbs told me about it himself. The subject of 



214 MAHASKA COUNTY 

snakes is not a pleasant subject to write about, nor talk 
about, nor think about, but as they played a conspicuous 
part in the early settling of this country. I thought it 
proper to make some mention of them. 

Wild turkeys were thick about in the woods and 
sometimes would come close to our house. We had a 
pen of corn out by the stable, and one day when I was 
alone I heard that peculiar sound which turkeys make. 
I opened the door gently and on looking out I beheld that 
corn pen covered with turkeys and about a dozen others 
walking about on the ground. I stood still and watched 
them a little while before they discovered me, but when 
they did get a glimpse of me they hied themselves off 
down through the grove. Quails were plentiful about in 
the woods and groves. One flock in particular" made 
their headquarters about our corn pen that first Fall. 
Gorrell made a trap and first and last caught the whole 
flock, numbering sixteen. I don't think a flock of quails 
ever behaved as satisfactorily to their captors as that 
flock did. There were always two, and never more than 
three, found in that trap at one time. Gorrell and I al- 
ways had each a quail. If there were three I generally 
gave Gorrell the extra one, though he would insist on 
dividing. 

Our cooking utensils consisted of a tea kettle, a cof- 
fee pot, a skillet and a kettle, which answered the pur- 
pose of boiling, baking, stewing and roasting. We didn't 
have a great variety of things to cook, but the corn bread 
I used to bake in that skillet would make a Kentuckian's 
mouth water to-day. No corn bread in these days baked 
in any of the modern ranges is half so good as that baked 



REMINISCENCES. 21.5 

in a skillet by an old-fashioned fireplace. We used to 
think a dinner without corn bread was not a dinner at all. 
Dyspepsia and indigestion were words which very few 
people knew the meaning" of in '46 — I mean Mahaska 
people. Some words which were in common use and per- 
fectly well understood by every man, woman and child 
in this region in '46 are fast becoming obsolete, or going 
into desuetude. For instance: "Egg bread,"' "light 
pone," ''johnny cake," "hoe cake," "lye hominy." Not 
long ago a gentleman asked me what kind of a plant hom- 
iny grew on, and was it cultivated in this country? 

Oskaloosa to-day can boast of many institutions never 
dreamed of by her inhabitants^ in '46. Among them a 
society or organization whose object is to look after and 
relieve the city's poor, who are supposed to be worthy of 
benevolent consideration. This society is managed by 
the women of the city. A committee from each ward 
looks after the wants of its respective ward. My friend. 
Miss Leoni McMillen, being one of a committee, when 
on a tour of investigation came upon a family who had 
applied for help. Miss McMillen inquired into their 
needs, when the woman of the house informed lier that 
they wanted some first-class canned peaches, some 
oranges, raisins, granulated sugar, coffee and tea, porter- 
house steak and a sack of flour — she preferred "Pills- 
bury's Best." After Miss McMillen had taken her order 
for the foregoing articles she suggested that she send 
them some corn meal, when the woman informed her that 
her family couldn't eat corn bread. "Can't eat corn 
bread!" Miss McMillen exclaimed in indignant astonish- 
ment. "Madam, I want to say to you that the bone and 



216 MAHASKA COUNTY 

sinew of this country were raised on corn bread, and if 
you can't eat corn bread now, you had better go hungry 
until you can eat it. Can't eat corn bread! Why, the 
men who fought to save our country were glad to get 
corn bread." 



REMINISCENCES. ' 217 



CHAPTER XVII. 

In the early days, anywhere in Oskaloosa and ahnost 
anywhere in the vicinity, a g^ood well of water could be 
obtained by digg^ing from fifteen to twenty feet, and 
when our little home was located on that beautiful spot 
we had no thoug'ht that there would be any difficulty in 
finding water, as others had done. But when Gorrell 
got ready to dig" a well he and Wat supposed they would 
have it completed in three or four days, but disappoint- 
ment awaited them. As soon as Wat had g^one throug^h 
the rich, black loam he struck a dry, hard clay. They 
expected to strike a vein of water down about twenty 
feet, but they dug" and drew out that dry hard clay until 
they had gone fifty feet straight down in the g-round 
without striking- a drop of water; then they encountered 
a slate stone so hard the fire would fiy from the pick as 
they tried to dig. Gorrell had an old well-digg^er come 
and give his opinion of the prospect. The old well-dig- 
ger's opinion was, there were several feet of that hard 
slate, and immediately under that slate was a vein or 
strata of coal, and if they found water at all it would not 



218 MAHASKA COUNTY 

be good. So after all that hard work of digg-ing' straight 
down through clay as hard as rock without the least 
prospect of finding water, the thing had to be abandoned. 
We were disgusted with the thought of a coal bank on our 
place — we had no use for coal. Nobody but blacksmiths 
had any use for coal, and they could find all they wanted 
by digging in a hillside or bluff down on Spring Creek or 
Muchakinock. There was plenty of wood around here, 
and what did anybody but a blacksmith want with that 
dirty, foul-smelling stuff? So at intervals, as Gorrell 
found time, he would shovel the clay and slate back into 
that hole until it was all filled up. The failure to get 
water took a good deal of the charm off of that charming 
spot. Hauling and carrying water became irksome after 
a while, and we decided to move our house to a grove 
near the southeast corner of our south forty, where we 
knew we could get a well of water. 

When the country was first settled, people died and 
had to be buried, many more in proportion to the number 
than now. In those days water was so near the surface 
in most places that a grave was apt to have water in it 
when a body was placed therein. That seemed horrible 
to us, and when that well was dug and the ground found 
so dry, the thought naturally came to us that it would be 
just the place for a cemetery. We often talked about it, 
but had no idea of selling the land for any purpose, es- 
pecially for a cemetery. We expected that to be our 
home as long as we lived, but we talked so much about 
its being a proper place for that purpose that I got to 
imagining I could see graves all over that ridge, and on 
those gentle slopes to the east and to the west and down 



REMINISCENCES. 219 

in the grove to the north. Sometimes I would be alone 
all day and have nothing to do but sew carpet rags and 
piece quilts and think and imag"ine. I never was what 
people call "lonesome." If I had no other company I 
could enjoy myself very well communing" with my own 
thoughts. 

When we first went to housekeeping we had no land 
fenced; ten acres had been broken the year before, and 
Gorrell made rails and fenced it after we had moved; he 
raised his first crop of corn on his father's farm and gath- 
ered it after we went to our own home. The days were 
getting short and the evenings cool, and when I would be 
looking for him in the evening I would have a bright fire 
burning in the fireplace and open the door so he could see 
it as he drove up with his load of corn. I would have the 
supper all ready to take up, biscuit or cora bread in the 
skillet, coffee boiling on the coals, and if we didn't have 
quails we had sausage. We didn't have a cow at first, 
but mother Phillips kept us supplied with milk and cream; 
she was always good and never forgot her children. How 
my heart would bound with gladness when I would look 
out and see my husband coming. I would throw a shawl 
over my head and run out to meet him, get in the wagon 
and help him throw the corn out; then while he was put- 
ting his horses in the stable and feeding, I would run in 
and get my supper on the table, and see that the fire 
looked all right. I always expected a compliment and 
never failed to get one. A bright fire sending a glow all 
around on the whitewashed walls of our little humble 
home, and a smoking supper on the table gave a look of 
cheerfulness and comfort which was sure to be apprecia- 



220 MAHASKA COUNTY 

ted by my husband, and he never failed to let me know 
how much pleasure it gave him. Little acts of kindness 
and little words of praise are the things w^hich go a great 
way in making a happy home. 

As I have already stated, the failure to get water 
made us decide to move our house where we should have 
built it in the first place. Though not quite so handsome 
a location, it was nearly a half a mile nearer town. We 
found plenty of water, splendid and soft, at twenty feet. 
We were much attached to that first home, and many 
pleasant memories lingered around it. There we first 
set up a home of our own, and there our two little boys 
were born. We lived there more than three years before 
we could find time and courage to tear down our house 
and move it away. After we moved away and the place 
became a common, with blue grass growing all about 
there, it was still beautiful. The town cows, with their 
many-toned and discordant bells, cropped the grass, and 
when they had satisfied their appetite, laid down and 
chewed their cuds in the shade of the beautiful oaks 
which used to adorn our front yard. 

A year or so ago David Evans and I were talking 
about the beauty of that place when he said to me: 

"Years ago when I was a young man, one day when 
I had been away down nearly to Skunk River, in coming 
home 1 walked up through the woods, and as I came to 
that spot I looked about and thought I had never seen a 
more beautiful place. I was tired and threw myself 
down on the grass to rest. There was a gentle breeze 
blowing, birds were singing in the trees above me, and 
as 1 lay there I thought, this is the spot where I want to 



RExMINISCENCES. 221 

be buried/"' When that place was being laid out and sold 
in little plots of ground for homes for the dead, Mr. 
Evans purchased the lot on which he had lain that da}', 
and now he and his wife lie side by side on the very 
spot where once the little log house stood which was our 
first home. 

There is a portion of Mahaska County lying to the 
southwest of Oskaloosa, fertile and beautiful, called "Six 
Mile Prairie." Six Mile Prairie was not allprairie, but 
bordered around and dotted here and there with some fine 
groves of timber, and the beautiful Des Moines River 
touches its southwestern limit. That grand and rich ex- 
panse of prairie and the wonderfully productive land on 
the border of that wide and clear and pebbly-bedded 
river attracted the attention of some of the shrewdest 
and solidist men who came to the New Purchase to make 
for themselves 'homes in 1813. Dr. Boyer located on a 
claim of that valuable bottom land and from time to time 
added to his possessions until he owned hundreds and 
hundreds of acres of the most valuable farming land in 
all this region. The Dr. and Mrs. Boyer were young 
people when they came, with two small children. They 
lived in a cabin like the rest at first, but before many 
years built and moved into a two-story brick house, which 
at that time was talked of far and near as a very preten- 
tious residence. Dr. Boyer was not only a fine business 
man, but an educated man and a highly-esteemed physi- 
cian and had an extensive practice. 

The Dr. became wealthy, but I don't think a great 
amount of his wealth was acquired by the practice of 
medicine, for I have often heard it said he would go 



222 MAHASKA COUNTY 

miles and miles through storms of rain and drifts of snow 
— would, like Ian McLaren's ""Dr. McClure,'' risk his life 
in crossing" swollen streams, go cold and hungry in trying 
to relieve the sick and suffering, when he never did and 
never expected to receive a cent of pay. Dr. and Mrs. 
Boyer raised a large family of sons and daughters. They 
stuck to the home they first made in the Des Moines 
bottom. The Dr. died a few years ago, but Mrs. Boyer 
lives there still, and though well along in years she is^ in 
full possession of all her mental faculties. Mrs. Boyer 
is honored, respected and loved by a large circle of 
neighbors and acquaintances; she has too noble a nature 
to be puffed up with wealth; she is genial, generous, and 
has been for more than fifty years what is called a valu- 
able neighbor. Her children, grandchildren and great- 
grandchildren may well rise up and call her blessed. 
Her sons are fine business men. F. D. and T. H. Boyer, 
sons of hers, carry on an extensive trade in clothing, F. 
D. in Oskaloosa and T. H. in Sioux City. People of 
Sioux City call T. H. Boyer the finest-looking man in 
their town. Dr. and Mrs. Boyer's oldest daughter is the 
wife of one of Oskaloosa's most esteemed citizens and 
best business men, Mr. J. R. Barnes. Mr. Barnes is 
cashier of the Mahaska County State Bank. F. D., 
"Frank," as we call him, is not only a successful busi- 
ness man, but has a heart so full of kindness he can't 
turn a deaf ear to those who go to him for sympathy or 
more substantial help. His wife, too, is never too busy 
nor too tired to fly to the bedside of a sick neighbor. 
Her deft hands know just what to do and just how to 
soothe the suffering. 



REMINISCENCES. 223 

Van B. Delashmutt was another one of the substan- 
tial men who came in '43, and was wise enoug"h to secure 
a larg^e tract of that wonderful production, Des Moines 
bottom land. He built his house where one could look 
out of the front door and see that river, could look across 
and see a border of trees festooned with wild grape vines 
which, when let alone, take on varied and beautiful 
shapes. In the early times, when there was no fruit but 
wild fruit, we went with great baskets to the Des Moines 
River, in the Delashmutt neighborhood, and gathered 
bushels of wild grapes and plums. 

Mr. Delashmutt was a Virginian, from that part of 
the "Old Dominion" where there were big mountains, 
big trees and big broad-shouldered men with big souls. 
He belonged to the latter class, as I have often heard his 
neighbors assert. One of his daughters married Judge 
J. A. L. Crookham, a prominent citizen of Oskaloosa. 
She died when a young woman, leaving two children, 
William and Elizabeth Euclid. "Euclid," as she is usu- 
ally called, is a bright, well-informed, scholarly woman, 
and has for several years been a teacher in Portland, 
Oregon. William Delashmutt, Van Delashmutt's oldest 
son, is an honorable, respected citizen of Oskaloosa; he 
was a man when his father came in '43, and remembers 
and can relate more incidents of the early settling than 
any man I know. The Boyers and Delashmutts, have 
from the first settling of Mahaska County to the present 
day been prominent families. 

When one hears the Six Mile Prairie spoken of they 
are sure to associate it with the name of Wilson. Sever- 
al families of Wilsons, more or less distantly related, 



224 MAHASKA COUNTY 

came in 1843 and took possession of large bodies of the 
public domain, situated in that region so famed for its 
beauty and fertility. The Wilsons, like the Boyers and 
Delashmutts, it seems, knew when they had a good thing 
and were wise enough to hold on to it. In driving about 
through that region of line farms, ever and anon one 
comes to a substantial, thrifty-looking and well-kept 
place, belonging to one or another of the Wilsons. One 
of the Wilsons whom I hear called "Tom," has a fine 
farm and a fine house on the river's brink, where he 
raises corn which is simply immense, and melons rivaling 
the tropics. In coming from the Tom W^ilson place to- 
ward Oskaloosa one sees another of the kind of farms 
which delight the eye and makes one feel that this is in- 
deed a land of plenty. Milo Wilson lives there with his 
intelligent wife and eight sons, surrounded by fields fairly 
groaning with their burden of that king of Iowa's pro- 
ductions, and smiling fields of clover. Not far from 
Milo Wilson's and near the northern boundary of Six 
Mile Prairie lives another family of Wilsons, Mr. Blake 
Wilson, his charming wife and two bright children, and 
with them Mrs. Wilson, mother of Milo and Blake. 

This morning, which is the 7th day of August, 1898, 
my son Quincy and I proposed taking a drive. After 
Quincy had harnessed our good old horse "Jim" to the 
phaeton and we were seated therein, Quincy said: "Now, 
mother, where shall we drive?" I proposed that we 
drive out to Blake Wilson's. ''Jim" is in his twenty-first 
year, has been a faithful servant in our family for more 
than fourteen years, and in all that time has never been 
known to balk nor kick nor run away, nor anything unbe- 



REMINISCENCES. 225 

coming' in a horse. He never comes to a railroad track 
that he don't look up and down to see if a train is coming-. 
If a train happens to be coming- he will stop at a proper 
distance and wait quietly until it has passed. Jim is of 
ancient and aristocratic lineage. Some of his ancestors 
were of pure "Barb" stock, which accounts for his sagac- 
ity, and also accounts for his being as nimble as a colt 
at his advanced age. Jim never did a hard day's work in 
his life, but willingly takes us wherever we want him to. 
So this morning we turned his head toward Beacon, 
which is the nicest mining town about here. Many years 
ago a good class of Welsh people emigrated to America 
and settled in and around Beacon, among them being four 
brothers named Price, Jenkin, Joshua, Watkin and John 
R. These, with many others, were quick to see the pos- 
sibilities of acquiring wealth in this land of beauty and 
vast resources. The coal which we used to think of so 
little account was not overlooked by them, nor the rich 
farming lands above it. The Price brothers were edu- 
cated men, and had the faculty of turning both their 
mental and physical powers to account in many branches 
of business. Many massive stone abutments where fine 
bridges span Iowa's rivers are the work of the Prices. 
They have built hundreds of miles of railroad, have held 
county offices, run stores and made successful farmers. 
Qnincy and I passed the Joshua Price farm to-day, where 
a substantial brick residence and barns and other out- 
buildings are so numerous one would almost take it for a 
village. 

Not far from Beacon, and just after reaching the top 
of Muchakinock hill we come to the edge of Six Mile 

15 



226 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Prairie. It was there a scene of beauty met our gaze. 
To the right, to the left, in front of us, lay an expanse of 
green richness which no tongue nor pen nor artist's brush 
can truly describe. On one side a vast field of great tall 
corn, the blades so green they were fairly black, and as 
far as we could see down the road, were great long ears 
protruding from the stalks, dressed in their red and white 
silk. Wheat stacks, oat stacks, green meadows and fields 
of red clover send out a perfume which nothing but clover 
can give. Herds of Jersey cows were contentedly crop- 
ping nutritious grass, reminding one of rich cream and 
yellow butter. My heart swelled with gratitude to the 
giver of all this beauty and luxury and plenty. I was 
reading last night about the poor starving, famishing 
wretches in Spain. The thought came to me: "If those 
poor hungry creatures could be transported from that 
land of desolation and set down in the Six Mile Prairie, 
how like heaven it would seem to them." 

Away over to the southwest was that smoky line 
which we all know means "over a. river." Farm houses 
neat and commodious, surrounded by orchards, gardens 
and flowers, loom up in various directions. Just in front 
of us in plain view is a farm ; the lay of the land is per- 
fect, the pleasant-looking residence, the substantial barn, 
and every other building seems to be in exactly the right 
place. That is Blake Wilson's. We were on the main 
road to one of the Des Moines river bridges, but we 
turned into a lane which led to Mr. Wilson's house. As 
we neared the gate we were struck with the neatness of 
the barn-yard, the lawn around the house, and even in 
the lane outside the grass was shorn and not a weed was 



REMINISCENCES. 227 

allowed to raise its head along the fence. The grass on 
the lawn had been cut with a lawn-mower and was like 
velvet, with no scraggly ends about the fence, nor flower 
beds nor porch. Every tree and post stood out clean; 
no straggling spears of grass were left about their roots. 

Young Mrs. Wilson saw us as we drove up to the 
gate, and came flying out, her face beaming with hospi- 
tality. We informed her that we had only come to make 
a short call. T just wanted to talk a little with her 
mother about the early days on "Six Mile." Quincy 
hitched Jim to a post, then went to the barn to find Mr. 
Blake. Mrs. Blake and I went in the house, and I never 
sat down until I had seen all the rooms down stairs. 
There was no attempt at display, but everything looked 
orderly, cozy, comfortable and restful. Presently Mrs. 
Wilson, Sr., came in and we let our tongues run for about 
an hour, me asking questions and she answering, all 
about her experiences in the beginning of things on the 
"Six Mile.'' Mrs. Wilson is over eighty years old, but 
don't look like she was near that old. She moves about 
with ease, her eyes are bright, her hair is a beautiful iron 
gray, abundant for one of her age, and lies in waves. 
Her mental faculties don't seem at all impaired, and she 
is an interesting talker. She, with her husband and 
young family came from Virginia in '42, stopped in Wash- 
ington County the first year, came to Mahaska County 
and the Six Mile Prairie in '43, and moved into a cabin 
without a floor. The first night a pouring rain wet every- 
thing and flooded the house; they dug a ditch across the 
room to let the water out. They were glad to get corn 
bread, and sometimes lived on hominy, but with it all she 



228 MAHASKA COUNTY 

never become discourag-ed nor low-spirited. Her experi- 
ences in those times of hardship and privation were like 
many others. 

Mr. Wilson died in 1872, leaving his family well pro- 
vided for. Mrs. Wilson is well situated in her declining- 
years. While we were talking her g^randson came in, a 
brig-ht little boy of some seven or eig^ht years. She 
called him to her and introduced him to me, then said: 
"Here is a boy who has never g-iven his grandmother a 
saucy word nor an unkind look." Both Mrs. Wilsons and 
I went out on the lawn where were beds and borders of 
flowers — not many of the old-fashioned kind we used to 
love so much, but beg^onias, g-eraniums, pansies, and many 
others with great long scientific names never heard of by 
Six Mile people in the forties. Pretty rocks and shells 
from the Des Moines River were arranged around the 
edges with delicate ferns growing between. While we 
were admiring the various colors and shades of the 
bright-faced pansies, Quincy brought Mr. Wilson up from 
the barn, who, with face beaming all over with good wilt 
and good humor, grasped my hand, gave it a hearty 
shake, then immediately set about gathering and arrang- 
ing for me a boquet of those beautiful flowers. I was 
surprised to see the skill and taste which he displayed in 
arranging those flowers. One would have thought he 
had been brought up a florist, but it was just his innate 
perception of beauty and harmony. When he had finished 
the boquet and presented it to me with the gallantry of a 
Chesterfield, he invited me to walk to the garden to see 
his California beans, which certainly were a curiosity, — 
whether useful or not remains to be determined. But it 



REMINISCENCES. ^29 

does look curious to see a bean start out away up toward 
the top of a pole, and grow and grow so long- that its 
point drags the ground. That is the way Mr. Blake 
Wilson's California beans are threatening to do. I told 
Mr. Wilson he ought to sketch that scene as it appeared 
from the point where we were standing. He seemed to 
have so much of the artist in himself I was sure he could 
do it. 

The country northwest of Oskaloosa and border- 
ing on the Skunk River timber was seized by some of the 
same sort of men I have been trying to tell about, who 
came in '4'^ and '44. There were the Troys, the Liters, 
the Padgetts, the Coffins, Samuel and John, all of whom 
made claims,- and with their families endured the same 
kind of crude living I have so often described. Their 
little cabins were built along the edge of the timber, with 
plenty of prairie for farming lying to the south. There 
were numerous groves a little way out from the main 
timber, which made that region attractive in its primeval 
state. The land, like all other land in this region, was 
rich and lay well for farming. John Coffin and Samuel 
were brothers. Their land joined. Both had families, 
each having several children. John Coffin was killed by 
a horse in the summer of 1852, and was buried in the 
Friends' burying ground at Spring Creek. His wife 
Eleanor remained on the farm where they first settled and 
brought up her children, who are respected and useful 
members of society. 

I knew more about Samuel Coffin and his family than 
any I have mentioned of the early inhabitants of that 
neighborhood. Though Samuel Coffin was a distant rela- 
tive of mine, I never met him until the fall of '44. He 



230 MAHASKA COUNTY 

then was about thirty-six years old, tall and straight and 
full of vigor, pluck and energy. He had all the qualities 
necessary in battling with the hardships which attend 
the settling of a new country. He was honest, honor- 
able and brave. His ancestors were Nantucket whale- 
fishers, who were not afraid of small things, and Samuel 
Coffin inherited many of the traits of character which 
those hardy seaman were said to have possessed. They 
were said to be fearless, honorable, with an innate prin- 
ciple of justice pervading their whole nature. They 
were a "law unto themselves.'" I think Samuel Coffin 
possessed every trait which I have mentioned, and all 
his old neighbors will agree with me in saying: If 
Samuel Coffin ever did a mean or dishonorable act, he 
did violence to his own nature. He provided well for 
his own household, and was always ready to help a friend 
or neighbor if he found them in trouble. Samuel Coffin 
was a fine looking man when in his prime. His hair and 
eyes were dark. There was a look of strength and genu- 
ineness in his face which inspired one with confidence. 
Even when in trouble himself, he could always find a 
comforting word for those who sought his sympathy and 
help. A man like Samuel Coffin is a blessing to any 
neighborhood. His wife Sophia, who came with him to 
this fair wildness, and shared with him the inconvenience 
of a little cabin in a new country, was a handsome 
woman, with dark hair and dark blue eyes, and a com- 
plexion like cream and roses, which the prairie winds even 
could not spoil. She was not only handsome, but a 
lovely, gentle, sweet-spirited woman. 

My husband and I, in the early times would mount 



REMINISCENCES. 231 

our horses and g"o dashing- over the hills and hollows, 
many a time to Samuel and Sophia Coffin's, where we 
were sure to be received with a smiling- welcome from 
both. Samuel would take Gorrell off to look at his big- 
corn and his pigs, and after a while they would come 
back with their arms full of great luscious melons. While 
our husbands were looking at the crops, I would help 
Sophia g'et dinner, and such quantities of fried chicken 
and cream g-ravy and peas and potatoes, and hot biscuit 
and honey and butter and coffee with good rich cream, 
we would have on the table in that little cabin when our 
husbands returned. We hardly ever saw an apple and 
never a peach in those days, but when the time of year 
came around we had melons and blackberries and plums. 
It was not unusual in those days to find a hollow tree 
wherein was a colony of bees and g'reat quantities of 
honey. I have heard of hundreds of pounds of honey 
being- found in a single tree in the Skunk river timber. 
It was a fortunate thing- for the early settlers that the 
Lord sent the bees on ahead to prepare that excellent 
substitute for sug-ar. Money and sug-ar both were scarce 
then. Wild grapes, wild plums and wild blackberries 
abounded in the timber along- Skunk river, but none of 
them make very good pies or sauce without being sweet- 
ened, and that honey just fixed things. Many a black- 
berry cobbler have I seen and tasted, which had been 
sweetened with the product of those bee-trees. Samuel 
Coffin was not only a successful farmer and cattle raiser 
and pig- raiser, but could find a bee-tree if there hap- 
pened to be one any where in his region. When a man 
found a bee-tree he would cut his name or initials on it. 



232 MAHASKA COUNTY 

and it was about as dangerous to "jump" a bee-tree as it 
was to "jump" a claim. 

Samuel and Sophia Coffin had an iateresting family, 
four sons and three daughters, bright, handsome chil- 
dren. They added to their acres and other possessions, 
and were beginning to be comfortably fixed, when death 
broke into that happy family and took the beautiful and 
gentle wife and mother. 

After seeing the last spade full of earth placed and 
made into a mound over all that was mortal of the wife 
of his youth, that strong man, with a heavy heart, went 
back to his desolate home and sat down among his 
motherless children and wept. His heart was sad, the 
world looked dark, all joy seemed to have departed, never 
to return, but before long he began to realize that he 
could not afford to sit and nurse his grief, as there was a 
family of children, some of them mere babies, who had 
to be provided for. His cares were doubled. He had to 
fill the place of father and mother too, but he possessed 
great strength of character, could surmount difficulties 
that many a man would sink under. He cast his own 
griefs and heart-aches in the back-ground and went on 
toiling and planning and doing the best he could for his 
•own family and any others who came in his way and 
needed assistance. After a year or two he married Susan 
Lister, a daughter of Henry Lister, an old settler in 
Oskaloosa. Susan was a good girl, good looking and a 
conscientious Christian. To that union were born nine 
children, five daughters and four sons. Although Samuel 
Coffin had an unusually numerous family to support, they 
were all well provided for. Every one of his eight 



REMINISCENCES. 2S3 

daug^hters grew to respectable womanhood, and I have 
been told, married good men. Hampton Cruzen, one of 
Mahaska's prosperous farmers who died a year or two 
ago, married Sarah, the oldest. Eliza, the next, is the 
wife of Mr. Stephen Pomeroy. another of Mahaska's suc- 
cessful farmers and respected citizens. Mary, the beauty 
of them all, married Mr. Carl Barr, and is living- in Ft. 
Madison. When I say that Mary is the beauty, I don't 
mean that the others are not g"ood looking-, for every one 
of them are more than ordinarily good looking". But 
Mary was decidedly handsome. Several of that numer- 
ous household have joined the great majority, their 
graves are as widely separated as are the living mem- 
bers. 

Samuel and John Coffin, like all the other Coffins in 
the United States, are descendants of Tristram and 
Diones Coffin, who came from England in 1642 and settled 
at Salisbury in Massachusetts. In 1660 Tristram Coffin 
and nine others purchased the island of Nantucket. 
There they settled in that year and not long after en- 
gaged in the whale-fishing business. Those Nantucket 
people followed that business successfully through sev- 
eral generations. They traversed every known sea, (I 
mean all the oceans) and sold their cargoes in every sea- 
port in Europe and many other parts of the world. One 
visiting Nantucket to-day can see in those quaint old 
houses, relicts in the way of elegant furniture, paintings, 
china and silver ware brought by those whale -fishers to 
their wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. In course 
of time the little island of Nantucket became so thickly 
inhabited with Coffins and Maceys, and Gardners and 



234 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Starbucks and Michells and Folgers and Russells and so 
forth, that they began to find homes and busmess in 
other parts of the western hemisphere. There is said to 
be twenty-five thousand persons in the United States 
who can trace their lineage directly to Tristram and 
Diones Coffin, those first settlers on that island. It is 
said also that all the Coffins in this country are of that* 
family. One William Coffin, a great grandson of Tris- 
tram, and whose wife was Priscilla Paddock, emigrated 
to North Carolina not very long before the Revolutionary 
war. These were the ancestors of Samuel and John, 
whom I have been telling about. The Coffins are great 
people to keep track of their lineage and most of them 
reverence their ancestors, and many of the family names 
are kept going from generation to generation. Priscilla 
is a name common among the Coffins. I have heard that - 
Priscilla Paddock was a very superior woman and of an 
excellent family, therefore in every generation of Coffins 
since her time there has been many Priscillas. Mrs. 
Priscilla Prine, of Oskaloosa, a very excellent and in- 
telligent lady, is a daughter of John Coffin. Samuel 
Coffin was a Christian and died in peace at the age of 
seventy one years, honored and respected by all who 
knew him. The largest funeral procession ever seen in 
Mahaska county was said to be the one that followed the 
remains of Samuel Coffin to their last resting place in 
Forest cemetery. 

Erastus and Thomas, sons of Samuel Coffin, own and 
occupy farms and have commodious residences not far 
from the old homestead where they were brought up. 
Frank, another son, lives in Nebraska. I hear that 



REMINISCENCES. 235 

Frank is not only a prosperous farmer, but is a man 
amongst men. Samuel, the youngest of that numerous 
family, was a little boy when his father died, but now a 
tall, fine looking man, and people say is a veritable "chip 
off the old block." He lives in Colorado and is engaged 
in railroading. I was not at all surprised to hear a good 
report of "little Sammy" as we used to call him, for I 
had reason to know that he was an honest and honorable 
little boy. 



236 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

If we drive out west from Oskaloosa on the Pella 
road, almost immediately on quitting- the town, we will 
beg-in to enter what is known as the Prine neighborhood, 
and as we drive on we can see here and there and yonder 
fine houses, g-reat barns, big- pastures wherein are herds 
of big- fat cattle. Many of these fine places which show 
such evidences of thrift belong- to one or another of the 
Prines. The old set of Prines, Henry, Dan and Kin 
Prine, came in an early day when land was cheap. They 
boug-ht large tracts of that beautiful rolling prairie, 
whereon was only the wild prairie grass and flowers. 
They broke the sod, fenced their broad acres, and in the 
course of time planted immense orchards, builded fine 
houses and barns, and now their children and grand- 
children are living and flourishing all about them. 

Beautiful and commodious houses and well kept 
lawns, bright with flowers and surrounded with maples 
and elms adorn the place where once was A. G. Phillips' 
double log house, big barn, log stables, and long row of 
corn -pens. The house was on the south side of the lane 



REMINISCENCES. 237 

and opposite was a great gate with immense posts 
painted red. Above these posts a sign was erected, 
high enough for any wagon to pass under, whereon was 
painted in letters large enough to be seen a long way off 
the words ''Wagon Yard," which meant a place where 
people traveling in wagons could find a stopping place 
and could procure, not only provender for their teams, 
but shelter and food for themselves. If they chose they 
could find plenty of room to cami) and boil their coffee 
on a fire made on the ground. People with various pur- 
poses in traveling and of various degrees of intelligence 
and culture often made Mr. Phillips' house a stopping 
place. I remember one gentleman in particular who was 
traveling in a two-horse wagon loaded with tobacco 
which he was wholesaling to merchants or storekeepers 
in the little towns which were springing up through the 
country. This gentleman's name was Henderson and 
was from Illinois. Mr. Henderson seemed to be about 
fifty years old, was rather heavy set, strong looking and 
had a fine head and face. His first appearance at my 
father-in-law's was on a Saturday, and he remained over 
Sunday. It did'nt take long for us to discover that he 
was no ordinary man. My father-in-law soon engaged 
liim in conversation, and the rest of us listened and 
stared. They talked on politics, they talked of the 
church, they talked about the Mexican war and its prob- 
able consequences, they talked about the half-breed 
tract and the legal intricasies attending it. Mr. Hender- 
son made several trips through here and always managed 
to come on Saturday and stay over Sunday. One Sunday 
in the summer of '47, when my husband and I were living 



238 MAHASKA COUNTY 

in our little log house, down on that beautiful ridge, my 
father-in-law brought Mr. Henderson to our house and I 
prepared dinner for them. I felt that I was entertaining 
a very brilliant man, or that a very brilliant man was 
entertaining me, for while I fried the chicken and pre- 
pared the best of everything else I could muster up for 
dinner, I Was listening to the wise and brilliant things 
that man was saying with the greatest interest. I don't 
think he took much notice of me, for I felt myself too 
ignorant to take any part in the conversation. If he di- 
rected a remark to me I could only say "yes sir" or "no 
sir," and simper and turn red in the face. But I could 
listen, and did listen, which I think now was better than 
to have tried to carry on a conversation with a man who 
possessed such a vast amount ot knowledge and was so 
capable of instructing those who were willing to listen. 
Mr. Henderson, we learned, had been a noted political 
speaker in Illinois, had been a candidate on the Whig 
ticket for lieutenant-governor, but was defeated. In one 
of Mr. Henderson's trips through Iowa he stopped in 
Iowa City. 

The legislature was in session, and one of its mem- 
bers who happened to know something about Mr. Hen- 
derson's ability as a speaker, invited him to visit the 
body, introduced him to some of the members and hinted 
that he was able to interest an audience and so forth, 
whereupon he was invited to give a talk, which he did, 
and it was said not only interested, but electrified the 
whole house. After it was over, Asberry Porter slapped 
Micajah Williams on the shoulder and exclaimed, "Cage! 
Did you ever see such a common looking old codger that 



REMINISCENCES. 239 

could say so many smart things?" Mr. Henderson was 
dressed in a suit of home-made jeans, but did not apolo- 
gize for his plain dress nor his seemingly humble 
occupation. 

In the summer of 1847 the people in and around 
Oskaloosa were thrown into a state of excitement and 
expectation, on hearing that a large colony of Hollanders 
were coming through here and were going to settle and 
build a town on the divide about eighteen miles north- 
west of Oskaloosa. We were told that these people were 
a very pious set of protestant Christians who had left 
their native country on account of religious persecution. 
We knew very little of Holland and Hollanders. I mean 
the people generally. A few of us had learned from our 
geographies that Holland was a country of canals and 
much of its land had been reclaimed from the sea, and 
every foot was utilized and cultivated until Holland was 
one vast garden and net work of water-ways, outside of 
its towns and cities. We had some vague recollections 
of having heard or read of Holland being a place of 
refuge for those who were persecuted for their religious 
belief. It seemed a little strange that Holland people 
should be seeking refuge among us for the same cause. 
Not many of us had ever seen a Hollander, and when 
they came along the road in various kinds of wagons 
drawn by various kinds of teams, we gazed in wonder at 
their quaint and unfamiliar ap23earance. Their dress 
was strange to us. Women were perched upon high piles 
of queer looking chests and boxes and trunks, many of 
them wearing caps, but no bonnets. Some of the men, 
and women too, wore wooden shoes, which was entirely 



240 MAHASKA COUNTY 

new to us. We were prepared to think well of this peo- 
ple, for we had heard only good of their character. We 
had been told that they were an honest, moral, industri- 
ous. God-fearing people, and from that time to the present 
have never heard it disputed. Many of them stopped at 
my father-in-law's place to purchase provender for their 
teams. Some took meals with us, some camped out in 
the lane or barnyard. But whether they had their meals 
in the house, or by a camp fire, or simply took a lunch in 
their hands and sat on the wagon tongue to eat it, not 
one of them failed to bow their heads and give thanks. 
In the winter following there was much passing up 
and down the road in quest of supplies for the colony. 
They would come in to warm, take off their wooden shoes 
by the fire, throw a shovel full of coals and hot ashes in 
each shoe, shake them around, throw the fire out, slap 
on their shoes again, light their pipes and be ready for 
another spell of battling with cold. All these Hollanders 
had money, some had a good deal, and they all seemed 
to know the best way to invest it. That colony was an 
organized body. Mr. H. P. Scholte was their president. 
He was a fine looking man, and looked like a leader of 
men. He was not only their leader in temporal affairs, 
but was their minister. People used to speak of Mr. 
Scholte as the Hollander's "Prophet, Priest and 
King." Soon after the founding of the town of Pella, 
Mr. Scholte built and occupied near the center what in 
that day was thought to be a very fine house, and back 
of it laid out a garden, covering many acres. Fruit 
trees, ornamental trees and flowering shrubs were taste- 
fully arranged by a landscape gardner. Wide walks and 



REMINISCENC ES. 241 

narrow paths traversed it throughout. The useful was 
interming'led with the ornamental. Evenly planted and 
carefully tended squares of cabbage and rows of peas 
were ornamented with boarders of flowers. A place like 
that would be called a park in these days. The fame of 
"Scholte's garden'' spread far and near, and persons for 
miles around would drive to Pella on purpose to see it. 

Some of the Holland families who came to Pella in 
the beginning were wealthy, educated and cultivated, 
among whom were Mr. and Mrs. Bosquet and their boys, 
Peter and Henry. Those boys as I recollect them forty- 
six years ago were perfect models of good breeding. 
Their mother was a handsome and a lovely lady. I have 
been told by one who knows, that every member of that 
colony brought with them from their native home, a 
certificate of good character. It was'nt long before their 
superior farming and gardening began to be noticed and 
talked about, and many slovenly farmers were induced 
to make more out of their rich lands through the example 
of those frugal and thrifty Hollanders. They were not 
only industrious and prosperous but were hospitable. I 
used to hear it said that in every Hollander's house the 
coffee pot was always on the fire and every stranger or 
neighbor who entered was offered a cup of hot coffee and 
some kind of cakes, no matter what time of day it was. 
Those people made the journey from their native land to 
the land of their adoption through great tribulation. 
Many died at sea, and with aching hearts they witnessed 
the burying of precious ones in the deep, deep sea. But 
they were a people of faith, the kind of faith which gave 
courage to endure almost all things. We used to wonder 

16 



242 MAHASKA COUNTY 

at the pluck, the endurance and the patience of those 
people. I think every observing person who has watched 
their progress and methods from that first colony's ar- 
rival to the present time will say the Hollanders have 
been no detriment to this country. Every man of them 
took the oath of allegiance to the United States soon 
after they came. Many of them enlisted in the army 
and fought bravely in the war of the rebellion. They 
learned long ago how to manage the rich Iowa soil and 
their magnificent farms with commodious buildings reach 
out miles and miles in every direction from Pella. They 
were quick to learn the language and ways of Ameri- 
cans, have engaged in many kinds of business and been 
successful. Have been elected to and faithfully filled 
offices of trust. I have one now in my mind, Mr. Stephen 
DeCook, who has served several terms as county com- 
missioner, with credit to himself and to his constituents. 
Mr. DeCook carries in his right arm the effects and scars 
of a rebel bullet. He is one of Mahaska's successful 
farmers. Is an all around manly man — fine looking — • 
rather tall with broad shoulders. An honest face. Mr. 
DeCook is a Christian gentleman and a man of peace. Is 
always on the right side of every moral or political 
question. He is not given to controversy, but if at- 
tacked is fully able to give a reason for the faith within 
him. He has a nice family and provides well for his own 
household, but is not forgetful in entertaining strangers. 
He could'nt very well do any other way for the blood of 
the Huguenot runs in his veins, his ancestors having 
taken refuge in the Netherlands from persecution in 
France. 



REMINISCENCES. 243 

Even among" those Pilgrims who had fled from relig- 
ious persecution in Holland and were professed lovers 
of Democracy, there were deg^rees in the social scale. 
The wealthy and educated and more refined were ex- 
clusive. They broug^ht their ideas of social position with 
them. The social line between master and servant, or 
employer and employed, was much moi-e marked than 
with Americans of this new western country. A young 
lady who belong^ed to a family of "upper ten" Hollanders 
once said to me: "I never worked in Holland for it was 
considered disgraceful there for a lady to work, but in 
America I find it is thought to be disgraceful for a lady 
not to work. ' ' 

Late in the forties and early in the fifties, to Oska- 
loosa's inhabitants were added many worthy and inter- 
esting people. In the autumn of 1847, Smith & Cameron 
having- sold out their store, a young man by the name of 
John Rhodes, from Virginia, came and opened out a 
store in the room formerly occupied by them at the 
southeast corner of the public square on the ground 
where Will Neagle's store is now. Mr. Rhodes kept a 
store of general merchandise. In addition to the things 
usually kept in a store at that time, he created a little 
sensation by displaying a small stock of ready made 
clothing for men. That being the first time such goods 
had been ottered for sale in Oskaloosa. Mr. Rhodes had 
tact in displaying his goods and drawing customers. He 
was a tall, fine looking man, was genial and full of good 
humor — was polite and kind to- everybody. He soon 
made friends of all the young men about town, and they 
would congregate in his store of evenings and he would 



244 MAHASKA COUNTY 

entertain them with plantation songs, play on the banjo 
and make things interesting generally. I don't think 
Oskaloosa citizens had ever heard "Uncle Ned," "Sus- 
anna," "Nellie Bly" nor "I'm Just from Old Virginia" 
until Mr. Rhodes introduced those choice bits of song 
and melody. But not long after boys could be heard on 
the streets whistling and singing snatches of Mr. Rhodes' 
songs. 

In those days ladies did their shopping in the day 
time; they never ventured in a store at night unless the 
case was a very urgent one. But men would congregate 
in the stores, on winter evenings especially, gather 
around the stove and have a social time. Mr. Rhodes' 
store was made especially attractive for such gatherings. 
I never heard of anything more harmful being done in 
those meetings, than playing on the banjo, singing 
negro songs and telling funny stories. 

In a year or two Mr. Rhodes went back to Virginia, 
married the girl he was engaged to before he came, 
brought her to Oskaloosa, but before long they left here. 
Mr. Rhodes was doing a good business, but I have heard 
that Mrr. Rhodes was not content to live in a small place 
like Oskaloosa. 

To us who had trodden down the wild prairie grass 
in the public square and streets of Oskaloosa, and seen 
it grow from a dozen of the smallest and crudest log 
cabins to a town of eight or ten hundred people in three 
or four years, it seemed like a town of some consequence 
and we were proud of it, and jealous of its reputation. 
We had very little sympathy with anybody who made 
disparaging remarks about our town, or didn't think it 
a good enough place for anybody to live. 



REMINISCENCES. 245 

A number of substantial and intellig^ent people came 
and located in and about Oskaloosa along about the time 
I am telling' of —from '47 to '52. Among- others was D. 
W. Loring. He came here when a young man, engaged 
in mercantile business, was a steady, unpretending, in- 
telligent young man. There was no foolishness about 
him. He attended strictly to business and from the first 
was prosperous. I have known Mr. Loring for nearly 
half a century, and in all these years have never know^n 
or heard of his doing a dishonorable act. 

_ After Mr. Loring had been in business here two or 
three years he went back to his old home in Ohio and 
was married to Miss Mary Soule, and straightway 
brought her to Oskaloosa. Mrs. Loring was strikingly 
handsome. Her form was graceful and willowy, her eyes 
were brown and sparkling, and an abundance of the most 
beautiful golden-brown hair adornod her shapely head. 
She was dignified without being haughty. Her tastes 
were* all refined, her manners gracious. Mrs. Loring 
was an educated, well-informed, lovely Christian lady. 
Mr. Loring perhaps had what was called "a good start in 
a new country," but he and his young wife went to 
housekeeping in a small house, with not more than three 
or four rooms, but before many years they were estab- 
lished in a substantial and commodious residence fur- 
nished with comfort and luxuries, among which is one of 
the largest and most select private libraries in Oskaloosa, 
and that is saying a good deal, for there are many fine 
private libraries in Oskaloosa. 

Mr. Loring has now retired from active business, 
but for more than forty years was one of Oskaloosa' s 



246 MAHASKA COUNTY 

leading" merchants, having the confidence of all classes, 
especially Mahasiva county's substantial farmers. When 
one went to his store, he could always be found at his 
desk. I never heard of his being" in financial trouble. 
Many young" men have learned g"ood business habits by 
working in Mr. Loring-'s store. Although Mr. Loring 
has always had the reputation of being an honest, 
straightforward, level-headed business man, it was not 
at the expense of the culture of his own mind nor of the 
minds of his family. When the business of the day was 
over, he walked straight to his home, where, surround- 
ed by his interesting family, he enjoyed "a feast of 
reason and flow of soul."' Mr. Loring supplied his family 
with valuable books and high class literature. They all 
read and were well informed. When they surrounded 
their beautiful and daintily spread table, they made it a 
rule, or naturally fell into the habit of discussing ques- 
tions of scientific, religious, historic or literary interest, 
which rendered their meals a double feast. A talented 
gentleman, who was also a minister once remarked to 
me that Mrs. Loring was an exceedingly well informed 
lady, especially in the Holy scriptures. Although Mr. 
Loring has made what is called a success in life, he has 
enjoyed the confidence and respect of the whole com- 
munity where he has lived so many years. He has had 
to drink of the "cup of sorrow." Has seen the wife of 
his youth fade away and go out of his home forever, and 
not long after all that was mortal of his gifted and gentle 
daughter. Mary was laid beside her mother. One 
solace is left to him in his declining years, his son Frank 
- his only living child. Frank Loring is a young busi- 



REMINISCENCES 247 

ness man of unblemished reputation. The home, with 
its beautiful grounds, which Mr. Loring- has owned and 
occapied for so many years, was once the home of Mr. 
A. F. Seeberg^er, who came to Oskaloosa in the fifties 
and engaged in the hardware business on the north side 
of the square where Huber c^ Kalbach's store is to-day. 
A more highly-resjiected business man nor a more pol 
ished gentleman ever graced the town of Oskaloosa than 
Mr. Seeberger. He remained here a few years, then 
went to Chicago where he still resides and is one of the 
prominent citizens of that wonderful city. He is the 
Mr. Seeberger who was treasurer of the World's Colum- 
bian Exposition in 1893. 

In 1846 an elderly couple came to Oskaloosa and pur- 
chased several pieces of property. They were Mr. and 
Mrs. Willard Cobb. They bought and occupied the house 
on Lots 7 and 8 in Block 29, o. p., Oskaloosa. Mr. Jolly, 
a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, built that house 
and sold it to Mr. Cobb. Mr. Jolly and family went 
across the plains to Oregon in 1847 with ox teams. Mr. 
and Mrs. Cobb's children were all married when they 
came to Oskaloosa except tvv^o daughters, Paulina and 
Emma Cobb, who were young ladies then. Paulina Cobb 
married Wm. B. Street, whom I have mentioned before 
as one of Oskaloosa's first merchants. Their only child. 
Miss Ida Street, is a graduate of O. H. S. and also of 
Vassar College. Ida Street is a gifted and charming- 
young woman whom (Oskaloosa is proud to claim as one 
of her daughters. Mrs. L. L. Hull, who is mistress of 
one of the most beautiful homes on East High Avenue, 
is also a grand-daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willard Cobb. 



S4S MAHASKA COUNTY 

Mr. Wm. Dart, a son-in-law of Willard Cobb, also came 
to Oskaloosa in 1846 and bought the "Oskaloosa House" 
of (I think) Orson Kinsman. Mr. and Mrs. Dart kept 
it a little while, then sold it to John N. Kinsman, who in 

1851 sold it to A. G. Phillips, who in the Spring of 1852 
sold it to his son, T. G. Phillips. In 1853 T. G. Phillips 
sold it to Samuel McMurray and J(jhn Prest. Mr. Wil- 
lard Cobb bought Lot 1, Block 31, o. p., in 1846; a cabin 
was standing thereon and the Cobbs lived in that cabin a 
little while in the Summer of '46, until the Jolly family 
could vacate the better house. Mr. and Mrs. Cobb are 
buried in White's cemetery, usually called the "Old 
Cemetery." 

The California gold fever had not subsided, when in 

1852 A. G. Phillips went across the plains by ox team to 
California. Before starting he sold the undivided two- 
thirds of the south forty feet of Lot 8, Block 20, o. p., 
Oskaloosa, to his son, T. G. Phillips, and the undivided 
one-third of the same he deeded to his wife, Martha 
Phillips. Mr. A. G. Phillips never returned from Cali- 
fornia, but died and was buried there. The reason I am 
so minute in my story of those people and places is this: 
Many of Oskaloosa's young real estate men when getting 
up abstracts of title come to me for information about 
the people who lived here long ago and the property 
they owned, 

Mr. Daniel Ogilvie was the first man to open out a 
store exclusively of ready-made clothing. He occupied 
the house at first on the west side of the public square 
formerly occupied by Wm. B. Street; but immediately 
preceding Mr. Ogilvie's occupancy a Mr. James Quinn 



REMINISCENCES. 249 

had a stock of books and stationery in that room. Mr. 
Quinn and his wife were charming people, but the busi- 
ness w^as not satisfactory so he went back to Muscatine. 
Mr. Ogilvie and family came in 185'>, bought the house 
at the northwest corner of A iV venue and Third Street, 
which was one of the finest locations and pleasantest 
houses in Oskaloosa at that time. They improved and 
added to their house until it was commodious and very 
comfortable. Mrs. Ogilvie and her sisters. Misses Mary 
and Maggie Young, had a way of making everything 
about them pretty and attractive. They were not only 
charming housekeepers, but were hospitable, generous, 
and charming in their manners. Everybody liked to go 
to Ogilvie's, and their friends were legion. They enter- 
tained bountifully, and with a grace which made their 
guests feel at ease. They never said anything flat or 
insipid, and their wit and repartee kept one interested 
and amused from first to last. Lizzie Ogilvie, who was a 
baby when her parents came to Oskaloosa, grew to be a 
bright and popular young lady, inheriting the taste and 
skill in making things pretty and attractive which were 
so marked in her mother and aunts. One day Mrs. Ogil- 
vie took me to Lizzie's room just to show it to me. I 
just stood and gazed and admired the order and beauty 
which was everywhere. All those beautiful pieces of 
embroidery and that perfect neatness were the work of 
Lizzie's hands. I thought I had never seen a room quite 
so pretty. For many years Mr. Ogilvie was a prominent 
and successful business man, having a large store on the 
north side of the square; but some 24 or 25 years ago he 
moved to Denver, Colorado, where he died soon after 



250 Ad A MASK A COUNTY 

settling there. The Ogilvies didn't have to begin in a 
log cabin and rough it like the rest of us, who first set- 
tled in Oskaloosa, but were well-to-do when they came. 
Their house was nicely furnished, their table was boun- 
tifully supplied with all the good things the town and 
county afforded, and their meals were served on snowy 
linen and exquisite china, such as few in those days could 
afford. Mrs. Ogilvie and her sisters were self-respect- 
ing and unaffected in manner — liad none of what is 
termed "company manners." The}^ were generous, be- 
nevolent and helpful. 

Mrs. Ogilvie resides in Denver, near her daughter 
Lizzie, whose husband, Mr. Croft, is a prominent railroad 
man. I hear her spoken of as a model wife and mother. 
What used to be Miss Mary Young is now the wife of 
Judge Mann, a prominent citizen of Golden, Colorado, 
where she presides in a home made beautiful by her taste 
and skill. Maggie, Mrs. Babcock, lives in Pueblo, Colo- 
rado, and has been a widow many years. 

Ever and anon those charming ladies visit Oskaloosa, 
their old home, where they are welcomed by hosts of old 
time friends. Mr. Milton Young, a brother of Mrs. 
Ogilvie's, came to Mahaska county when a young man 
and by industry and honest dealing has accumulated a 
competence. He is now a citizen of Oskaloosa, where 
he and his excellent wife and children own and occupy 
one of Oskaloosa's line homes. Mr. Young came in the 
fifties and through all these years has been an honorable 
citizen of unblemished reputation. 

Andrew Young, another brother, was the first of 
that family to locate in Oskaloosa. He was a young man 



Reminiscences. 251 

of honor and business ability. When the war of the re- 
bellion broke out Andrew Youn*;' was one of the first of 
Oskaloosa's splendid young" men to enlist in the army, 
and one of the first of Oskaloosa's splendid young" men 
to sacrifice his life in defense of his country. Andrew 
Young- fell at the battle of Belmont. 

Between 1844 and 185() the old tavern built by 
Charles Purvine on lot 5, block 19, O. P., Oskaloosa, had 
many owners, many proprietors and many names. Some- 
times it was not kept as a tavern at all, but was rented 
to various families as a dwelling'. I can think of several 
families who have occupied that historic old house, not 
as tavern keepers; among- them Leper Smith, George 
Roland, Johnson Edgar and Christian Houtz, and others. 
Sometimes two or three families would occupy it at the 
same time. That was along in 184(3 and 1847 when peo- 
ple were coming in so fast they were glad to find any 
place to shelter them. In 1848 the Porter brothers 
bought it and fitted it up and kept it as a hotel for a short 
time; then a man named Paine kept it a little while. In 
1851 a family by the name of Sooy from Montezuma pur- 
chased the house and undertook to keep a house of en- 
tertainment for the accommodation of the traveling pub- 
lic, but it w^as not a success. Then the Stanleys, a nice 
family, were there a short time. The Cvertons, very 
good people, went in and went out. Mr. J. M. White 
purchased the house in 1853 and rented it to Hugh Mc- 
Neely, who was one of the first proprietors of the Oxl-a- 
looxK IlemJil. Mr. McNeely only stayed a year or so, 
then a Mr. Eastman was, I think, the next to tr}^ his 
hand at running that much occupied hostelry. I have 



252 MAHASKA COUNTY 

mentioned a few, but not near all the people who in the 
years from 1844 to 1855 catered to the wants of travelers 
and others desiring- food and shelter in that house. The 
name of the house was changed nearly as often but not 
quite, as its ov/ners and proprietors. "Mahaska House," 
"Iowa House," "Porter House" and "Eag-le Hotel" were 
some of the names painted on a board and hung- on a hig^h 
post out in front far enoug^h for the stag^es and other 
vehicles to pass between. 

After ten or twelve years of sudden chang^es of pro- 
prietors, names and reputation, there was a stop to that 
precarious shifting about. Mr. F. L. Downing", who 
came to Oskaloosa from London, Ohio, in 1856, purchased 
the house a ad grounds belong^ing" thereto from Mr. 
Jerome M. White. Mr. and Mrs. Downing" understood 
their business. They soon brought order out of chaos, 
and neatness out of confusion. Mrs. Croney and her 
daughter Caroline were members of the Downing" family. 
Mrs. Croney was a host within herself, and her excellent 
ideas and deft fing"ers added to Mr. and Mrs. Downing's 
knowledge and ability soon made that much-abused house 
inviting, attractive and popular. Mr. Downing thought 
it best to give the house a new name, so he named it 
"Madison House," They were model hotel-keepers, Mr. 
Downing being called "the prince of landlords." He 
made some additions, thoroughly repaired the old part, 
furnished it comfortably and respectably from one end to 
the other and always kept it in first-class order. Their 
table was always supplied with the very best the town 
and county afforded, and their meals were faultless. No 
matter at what labor or expense, the Downings always 



REMINISCENCES. 253 

kept the Madison House in excellent order. Both Mr. 
and Mrs. Downing- were not only persons of good taste, 
but were g^enial, friendly and hospitable. Their hotel 
was popular. They made money and added to their pos- 
sessions. 

Mrs. Croney, Mrs. Downing's mother, w^as a promi- 
nent factor in making that hostlery an attractive place. 
Her room was one of the coziest and most charming" 
places imaginable for the ladies about town to drop into 
and enjoy a pleasant chat. She and her daughter Caro- 
line always had something amusing or interesting to re- 
late, as their needles flew in and out of some useful or 
ornamental piece of work. Mrs. Croney was a devout 
Methodist, and while she was stitching away would often 
bring tears to her listeners' eyes as she would relate the 
sayings of this or that preacher of the by-gone days, or 
incidents she had witnessed in revivals in the days of her 
youth. Mrs Croney lived and died in the faith, and as I 
drive about in Forest Cemetery my old horse "Jim" is 
sure to stop by a marble slab while I read thereon the 
name of Lydia Croney, which always brings to my mind 
incidents I have heard her relate in that charming, cozy 
room in the Madison House. Her daughter Caroline was 
a handsome girl. She married Mr. Stephen F. Downing, 
a brother of F. L. They own and occupy a comfortable 
and pretty home in one of the finest locations about Os- 
kaloosa. Stephen Downing is a trusted and successful 
commercial traveler and one of the most genial of men. 
Stephen and Caroline have three daughters. Cora, the 
oldest, is the wife of Mr. Ed Howard, an intelligent and 
prosperous young business man of Oskaloosa. Cora is 



254 MAHASKA COUNTY 

handsome, sparkling, and a model housekeeper. There 
are no brighter children in Oskaloosa than her little 
daughter Hazel and her son Bailey. There is not a home 
on the outskirts of Oskaloosa where one can have a finer 
view. of the town than at the home of Stephen and Caro- 
line Downing. Their place was beautiful as I saw it be- 
fore a white man had ever cut down a tree or turned a 
shovel full of soil. Utilit^^ neatness and good taste seem 
to be inherent in the Dovs^iing and Croney blood. Kate 
and Mabel, the young ladies of that house, like their 
mother and grandmother, know how^ to make everything 
about them useful and attractive. Their rooms are filled 
with their handiwork and borders of flowers adorn their 
grounds. 

Charles Croney, Mrs. Croney's son, was not much 
beyond boyhood when the war of the rebellion broke out, 
but he enlisted in the army, went through the war with- 
out getting killed or seriously wounded, but came home 
broken in health. He died a few years ago in Washing- 
ton, D. C, leaving a wife and daughter, who live there 
still. 

Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Downing's daughter Ollie and son 
D wight were little children when their parents came to 
Oskaloosa and they grew to womanhood and manhood in 
Oskaloosa. Ollie married Mr. John Lord, a very su- 
perior young man. They went to California years ago. 
D wight chose the law as a profession, married one of 
Oskaloosa' s nicest and best girls, Miss Grace Durfee, 
and settled down in the town where he was brought up, 
and enjoys the reputation of being a reliable, honest and 
painstaking business man. He looks like his father, 



REMINISCENCES. 255 

which is saying" a good deal. Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Down- 
ing were a handsome and disting-nished looking conple. 
They were not only leaders in the hotel business, but 
were leaders in society. Their happy manners and good 
taste made them favorites among the fashionable. Their 
benevolence and kindness of heart made them loved by 
the needy and unfortunate. When Sarah Croney Down- 
ing was still young" and time had made no wrinkles in that 
fair face, death, that ruthless reaper, who is no respecter 
of persons, broke into that family, and that charming 
wife and mother and friend was his victim. Mrs. Down- 
ing^'s death was not only a sad bereavement to her im- 
mediate family, but her wide circle of friends. Very 
many of Oskaloosa's best jDeople felt her death to be a 
personal loss to themselves. Though Mrs. Downing- had 
much to make life dear and this world look bright, she 
died in the hope and faith of a better life beyond. I can 
never forg^et the earnest praj^ers and comforting" words 
uttered by the dying" bed of that suffering" w^oman, by 
that sweet, saintly Quaker lady, Mary Jane Cook, who 
has since g-one to her reward, and who knows but Sarah 
Downing" was one of the first of the redeemed ones to 
greet her on the "shining shore?" Mrs. Downing"'s fun- 
eral occurred on the fifth day of Aug"ust, 1869, at the 
First M. E. church in Oskaloosa. Multitudes from all 
classes gathered in and about the church, the fashion- 
able and prosperous to sympathize with the bereaved 
family and manifest their respect for a departed comrade, 
the poor and lowly to weep for one who had fed and 
clothed and sheltered them. The Rev. E. H. Waring, 
under whose ministry Mrs. Downing was converted, con- 



256 MAHASKA COUNTY 

ducted the funeral services. In his discourse, among 
other things I remember of his saying: "Among all my 
acquaintances I know of no Christian lady who had so 
wide a circle of friends." Mr. Downing was a devoted 
husband. All through his wife's lingering and painful 
sickness everything that money could purchase or love 
invent was lavished on her. Mr. Downing rented the 
Madison house to Messrs. Vermillion and Ong. Some 
two or three years after he married Miss Eunice Dart, a 
daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Albert Dart, of Oskaloosa. 
Miss Eunice was a popular and handsome young lady. 

In 1874 Mr. Downing moved the Madison house away, 
and on the ground where it stood erected a three-story 
brick hotel he named The Downing House. The Down- 
ing House seemed very complete and grand to Oskaloosa 
people then, and we were proud of it. Not long after 
Mr. Downing built the Downing House his health began 
to fail. He visited various watering places and health 
resorts, hoping to regain his health, but was not mater- 
ially benefited. He wouldn't give up, but kept going. 
One morning feeling unusually depressed, he took the 
train and fiew off to Colfax. In a few hours a dispatch 
came to his family, saying, "Mr. Downing is dying!" 
Not long after, another dispatch came, saying, "Mr. 
Downing is dead!" His family was heart-broken — his 
friends shocked and grieved. 

In one of the most beautiful lots in Forest Cemetery 
two graves lie side by side. At the head a tall marble 
monument, on which is carved the dates of the birth and 
death of Foster and Sarah Downing. On the same lot is 
another grave on which the grass has been growing for 



REMINISCENCES. 257 

many years, and there on a marble slab the same kind of 
a little story is told, only it is Lydia Croney. ''They 
were united in life, and in death they are not parted." 

All the time I have been writing about the Downings 
I kept thinking- about the McMullins. Major McMullin 
and Mr. Downing were in business together many years, 
and when I think of one I am sure to think of the other. 
Mrs. Downing and Mrs. McMullin were very intimate 
friends, too. When Major and Mrs. McMullin and their 
little daughter Sallie came to Oskaloosa it was Mr. Mc- 
Mullin. There had been no war in his lifetime to make 
Majors, and Captains, and Colonels, and Generals of our 
men as there was not long after. The McMullins came 
from Ohio, where so many of Oskaloosa's nice people 
came from. They came in 1855, not quite early enough 
to live in a log cabin, but they lived in some houses not 
overly good or roomy at first, but wherever they lived, 
everything about them was made as neat and pretty as 
it was possible for them to be made. It didn't take the 
citizens of Oskaloosa long to discover that the McMul- 
lins were superior people. They soon drew hosts of 
friends around them composed of Oskaloosa's best citi- 
zens. 

Mr. and Mrs. McMullin have been worthy and 
valued members of the Methodist Episcopal church for 
more than forty years. Their seats are never vacant 
unless they are unavoidably detained from attending. 
They are not very loud in their professions, but are al- 
ways ready to do their full share in maintaining the 
church. Maj. and Mrs. McMullin are exceedingly hos- 
pitable. They entertain with a grace and ease not often 

17 



258 MAHASKA COUNTY 

attained. One reason why things move along" so charm- 
ingly in that elegant and dainty home is this: There is 
perfect harmony between husband and wife. Their 
tastes are alike, there is no jarring nor discord. I have 
heard it said by persons who know well their habits, that 
there is never an unkind or disrespectful word spoken 
by one to the other. When the war of the rebellion 
came Maj. McMullin was one of the first of Oskaloosa's 
strong and brave and patriotic young men to enlist in the 
army. He was in many hard fought battles. He was 
promoted and commissioned Majorat Pittsburg Landing. 
He came out of the war alive by the ''skin of his teeth" 
carrying a scar made by a rebel bullet. Among others 
of the Major's good qualities, he had sense enough to 
save his money and when the war was over he had the 
means to go into a good business and fix himself and 
family to live in comfort. Sallie was a gentle child. She 
grew to be a sweet-spirited and gentle young lady. She 
married Mr. J. R. Noble, but while yet a young woman, 
those worthy and tender parents saw the eyes forever 
closed to the things of this world, and the daughter they 
had loved so much and so tenderly brought up, laid to 
rest in Forest cemetery, leaving to their care three little 
daughters. Not many little girls left motherless are 
blessed with so good a home, kind treatment and proper 
training as they receive at the hands of those worthy 
grandparents, Major and Mrs. McMullin. 



KEMINISCENCES. 259 



CHAPTER XIX. 

When I begin writing about the friends I have known 
so long and so well I can hardly find a place to stop. I 
want to follow them up from generation to generation. 
When I began this story my purpose was to tell as true 
a story, as I could of the days when all, or nearly all, of 
this beautiful and grand country was an unbroken wilder- 
ness; of its fir^sf settlers and their heroism. I wanted 
this generaticm to understand how people — some of them 
their ancestors, could live in log huts away from 
churches and schools and railroads, with little to wear 
and coarse food to eat, and yet be good and great. But 
I find myself wandering away from my first object and 
saying a good deal about a generation that was unborn 
when these scenes were being enacted. Some of Oska- 
loosa's most brilliant and prosperous business and pro- 
fessional men are, sons of these pioneers, and many of 
her brightest, best, and most charming women are their 
daughters. Some of them I have known from their child- 
hood, some I have held in my arms when they were 
babies. Their parents and grandparents were my friends, 



260 MAHASKA COUNTY 

and friends of the husband of my youth. It will not be 
thoug^ht strange that I feel an interest and want to tell 
about their children. So few of the first settlers are left 
I have to depend on my own memory for nearly all I 
have to say about them. Some were seized with the gold 
fever and went across the plains to California with ox 
teams late in the forties and early in the fifties. Some 
moved away to other new places and never came back. 
Some are sleeping in Forest cemetery, among them my 
own precious dead. 

I love to think of the early days and people. I love 
to talk about them, and I am glad to have the privilege 
and inclination to write about them. I want these splen- 
did young men and women in Cskaloosa and the country 
round about, who are descended from those courageous, 
self-sacrificing early settlers to know that they are not 
so altogether self-made as they may possibly think they 
are. Book learning and polish may be acquired, but 
brains, honor and courage have to be born in people. 
Nearly every one of the people who firi^t settled around 
here were endowed with brains, courage and honor. 
What they lacked was opportunity. The best part of 
their lives were spent in toiling to make the opportunity 
of which their descendants are reaping the benefit. But 
I see, if I don't mind I will fall into a habit T detest, 
namely, "moralizing." It's too much like explaining a 
joke. To tell the story and let the reader do his or her 
own moralizing I think is better. 

When I was a young girl my home was on the border 
of a neighborhood composed of people of German ex- 
traction, who had emigrated from Pennsylvania and set- 



REMINISCENCES. 261 

tied there when Indiana was new. "They were called 
Pennsylvania "Dutch.'' They were thrifty, honest, good 
neighbors and all round good citizens. As far as my 
knowledge goes the Pennsylvania Germans are good citi- 
zens anywhere. 

The family I want to talk about now is of that old 
and respectable stock. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Kalbach, 
with some of their older children came from Pennsyl- 
vania and located in Oskaloosa in 1851. They, like the 
majority of Oskaloosa's new comers in that day, had but 
little means, and lived in houses of small dimensions at 
first. Their family increased until there were four sons 
and five daughters, who were brought up to be industri- 
ous, self-reliant and self-respecting. The children were 
all well educated, nearly, if not altogether in Oskaloosa's 
public schools, Although for several years Mr. Kal- 
bach' s means were limited, and his family numerous, by 
honest industry and good management, he not only main- 
tained his family respectably, but laid by enough to 
enable him to embark in a lucrative business. Mr. and 
Mrs. Kalbach had the great good sense to live within 
their means. They were rather quiet people, but their 
habits and manners were of the kind which command the 
respect of their neighbors. Mr. Kalbach engaged in the 
lumber business, and was prosperous from the first. He 
has retired now from active business, but two of his sons, 
John and George Kalbach, are carrying on the lumber 
business extensively and profitably. John, the eldest of 
Mr. Kalbach's sons, married Miss Louise Patterson, an 
excellent young lady. Their home is one of the nicest 
in the city. Their son Warren is a fine looking young 



S6^ MASASKA COUNTY 

man, works in his father's office and bids fair to become 
a fine business man, like his father and uncles. Their 
daughters, Helen and Annette, are charming- girls. 

A few years ago Mr. John Kalbach made the regular 
round of sight-seeing in Europe. While on that trip he 
favored us with some charming and very interesting let- 
ters. When he came home somebody asked him what 
pleased him most of all the things he saw on that trip. 
His reply was: "The sight which delighted me most 
was the group standing on the lawn to greet me when I 
reached my home." 

George Kalbach is the only unmarried one of the 
family. He has traveled much, and his letters from 
abroad, especially from South America, were entertain- 
ing, instructive and written in a pleasing style. John 
and George Kalbach certainly have always been looked 
upon as intelligent, level-headed business men, but who 
was looking for the literary ability shown in the letters 
both of these gentlemen favored us with while traveling 
in foreign lands? William, another of the Kalbach broth- 
ers, in partnership with Mr. Chas. Huber (another of 
Oskaloosa's fine business men and good citizens), is doing 
an extensive business in hardware, both wholesale and 
retail. Mr. William Kalbach is also president of the 
Oskaloosa National Bank. He married one of Oskaloo- 
sa's nicest girls, Miss Nellie Seevers, daughter of Judge 
and Mrs. W. H. Seevers. 

Z. T. Kalbach, "Taylor," as we always called him, 
married Miss Rose Cole, a charming girl. Taylor located 
and launched out in business in the town of New Sharon, 
and like the rest of the Kalbach men, was not only very 



REMINISCENCES. 1^63 

prosperous, but. a valued citizen. But Taylor, in the 
pride of young" manhood, was cut down by death. Mr. 
and Mrs. Kalbach's five daughters every one grew to 
womanhood — honored, admired, and loved by all who 
knew them, especially by those who knew them best. 
The Kalbach lot is one of the prettiest in Forest Cem- 
etery. There Taylor and Emma sleep, where a few 
months ag"o the beloved mother of that excellent family 
was laid to rest. 

Though Isaac Kalbach's home is one of the most ele- 
gant and substantial in the city of Oskaloosa, and his 
sons and his daughters are so near, and pleasantly locat- 
ed, and are so kind and thoughtful of their father's com-^ 
fort, yet she who was the wife of his youth, the mother 
of his children, the one wlio shared his joys and griefs 
for more than half a century has gone out of that home, 
leaving a void nothing can ever fill; though Isaac Kal- 
bach has had to drink of that l^itter cup which nearly ail 
must drink sooner or later, he has much to comfort liim 
and to be thankful for in his declining years — more than 
usually falls to the lot of man. His daughters and his 
daughters-in-law are all that he could desire in daughters; 
his sons and sons-in-law are honorable and prosperous 
men. Not long ago a gentleman who knows them well, 
said to me: ''The Kalbachs can make money witliout re- 
sorting to questionable methods." 

Christian Iloutz, another of the Pennsylvania Ger 
man stock, with his wife and only child Ev^aline, came 
and located in Oskaloosa in 1847. Mr. Houtz bouglit a 
tract of land adjoining the town on the east, where he 
built a comfortable home, surrounding it with fruit trees, 



264 MAHASKA COUNTY 

vines and flowers. Mrs. Houtz had fine roses when fine 
roses were rare in this country; she had other fine 
flowers too. I think the Houtzes and the Fredericks 
were the first tamilies anywhere about Oskaloosa to 
propog-ate and cultivate dahlias, g-eraniums and fine 
roses. Mr. Houtz built that home in 1848. It stands 
there yet, a good and respectable residence. Mrs. 
Houtz died early in the seventies, but Mr. Houtz lived 
to an advanced age. They both died in the house they 
built in -'48. Mr. Houtz laid out an addition to Oska- 
loosa, which is known as Houtz's addition. His land in- 
creased in value as the town grew; he became quite 
wealthy, and when he died he left a considerable estate. 

Evaline was a bright little girl, and grew up to be a 
bright young lady. She married John R. Needham, a 
popular young lawyer, who was elected to the State 
Senate in 1852. He was Lieutenant Governor during the 
war of the rebellion. . By virtue of his office Mr. Need- 
ham was speaker of the house. When Ft. Donaldson 
fell, and a dispatch came telling of the same, it was 
handed to Mr. Needham. After glancing it over, he 
called the attention of the house and with joy beaming 
all over his face, he proceeded to read to that eager 
assembly: 

"Our Troops Victorious! 

Ft. Donaldson has Fallen!" 

It is said that such a scene was never enacted in 
Iowa's Legislature before nor since. One big shout went 
up. Tears of joy sprung to their eyes. They grasped 
each other's hands. They embraced, they laughed, they 
wept. 



REMINISCENCES. 265 

John R, Needham was the first editor of the Oska- 
loom Herald^ which was the first newspaper published in 
Oskaloosa. Mr. Needham died of consumption, when 
comparatively a young" man. leaving" two children, Minnie 
and Willie. Mrs. Evaline Houtz Needham is still a citi- 
zen of Oskaloosa, and is considered one of the best-in- 
formed women in the town. She is an inveterate reader, 
and her knowledg"e of prominent people and events is 
something wonderful. Mrs. Needham spends much of 
her time in one or another of the cities or watering places 
in the east. Her winters are usually spent in Washing- 
ton, D. C. She sometimes favors her home papers with 
letters telling" of the interesting places she has visited 
and the prominent and interesting people she has met. 
Mrs. Needham is a graceful writer. When she was Eva- 
line Houtz and a little girl in school her essays were re- 
markably well written. Mrs. Needham is a fine-looking 
woman, has a young" face and not a gray hair, though she 
has grand-daughters who are young ladies. Her daugh- 
ter Minnie was a bright and studious child, was one of 
the first to graduate from Oskaloosa High School, and 
was quite proficient in music. She married Mr. W. R. 
Lacey, a prominent young attorney, and is now mistress 
of one ot the finest homes in Oskaloosa, where she and 
her husband and daughters entertain their hosts of 
friends in the most delightful manner. Every room, 
nook and corner is furnished in an elegant, comfortable 
and restful manner. The daughters charm one with 
music, and the choicest of literature greets the eye on 
every hand. Their conservatory is filled with the choic- 
est plants and flowers, and their grounds are a bower of 



266 MAHASKA COUNT V 

beauty. Broad verandas festooned with graceful vines 
and surrounded with ferns, beg-onias and palms make one 
almost imagine they are in the tropics. Their grounds 
reach from street to street, and are pretty on all sides, 
with no unsightly places at all. 

W. R. Lacey is a successful attorney, a careful busi- 
ness man and is steadily adding to his possessions. Mrs. 
Needham's son, William Houtz Needham, was a bright 
and handsome boy, and when he reached young man- 
hood, was tall, broad-shouldered and handsome; was well 
educated, studied law, was admitted to the bar, began 
practicing his profession with bright prospects of suc- 
cess. He was courteous in his manners towards every- 
body, and everybody was his friend. He married Miss 
Ella Moore, daughter and only child of Mr. and Mrs. 
H. C. Moore, one of Oskaloosa's most accomplished 
young ladies. Those worthy young people had just 
taken possession of their beautiful home when the young 
husband was stricken with typhoid fever. Its progress 
was rapid: in a few days William H. Needham was no 
more. 

Colonel W. W. Chapman, who was a delegate to 
congress from Iowa when it was a territor}^ once re- 
sided in Oskaloosa. He, with his family, came here in 
the spring of 184(). They occupied a rambling kind of 
log cabin on the south side of High street about where 
the Narrow Guage depot stands. Some wag had given 
it the name of "Ft. Baker." An eccentric sort of man 
who was called "Colonel" Baker had built and occupied it 
when Oskaloosa was first a town. I don't know why he was 
called ''Colonel." I don't know why Chapman was called 



REMINISCENCES. 267 

Colonel, but he was. That was even before the Mexican 
war. Colonel Chapman was a brother-in-law to Van B. 
Delashmutt. He was a lawyer, a devout Methodist and 
a very nice man. In the spring" of 1847 Col. Chapman 
and family moved to Portland, Oregon, He crossed the 
plains with ox teams. 

I am sure Col. Chapman owned the largest library 
of anybody in the county when they lived here. I know 
I gazed with wonder and astonishment to see so many 
books in a little dark cabin, 

.John Montgomery was one of the first to stake out a 
claim in Mahaska county on the first day of May, 1843. 
He with John White, Felix Gessford and W. D. Canfield 
were hidden somewhere on the night of April 30.. They 
didn't go to sleep, but waited until the hands of some- 
body's watch pointed to the figure XII; then they grab- 
bed their torches and sharpened sticks and flew around 
the land they had been secretly spying out. Mr. Mont- 
gomery had chosen about the nicest piece of land to be 
found anywhere —right on the divide. The government 
reserves the privilege of taking a quarter section of land 
anywhere on the public domain if they want to locate a 
county seat, no matter who claims it. So the commis- 
sioners who located Oskaloosa, liked Mr. Montgomery's 
claim and pounced on it, and laid out the town, with a 
public square — not exactly in the center of the town, but 
exactly on top of the ridge, where the waters from the 
north side find their way to Skunk river, and the waters 
from the south side find their way to the Des Moines. 
Mr. Montgomery had land left after giving up that 
splendid quarter, and was allowed a claiai at the south- 



268 MAHASKA COUNTY 

west corner of town, besides, he had a splendid tract 
adjoining the town quarter on the south. On these lands 
Mr. Montgomery has laid out what is known as Mont- 
gomery's first and second additions to Oskaloosa. Mr. 
Montgomery has a comfortable home at the corner of 
First Street and Third Avenue. He is one of the very 
few persons who own and occupy a home on the claim 
they staked out on the first day of May, 1843. Mr. 
Montgomery has owned many valuable pieces of prop- 
erty, and still owns a good deal in the town and country 
round about. He is now old and feeble and much broken, 
but keeps his lawn and garden in good order with liis 
own hands. He has been twice married, and both wives 
were excellent women. They sleep in Old Cemetery. 
His three sons and one daughter are married and gone. 
His young lady daughters, Laura and Jessie, keep the 
inside of their home in as good order as the father does 
the outside. Mr. Montgomery is the oldest settler of 
Oskaloosa now living in the town, and the only one living 
of the men who drove stakes around their claims in this 
region on May 1st, 1843. Mr. Montgomery has always 
been an honest, liberal and kind-hearted man. 

After the Mexican war was over and terms of peace 
adjusted, there was a considerable scope of territory 
added to the United States. Our people didn't seem to 
think "expansion" a bad thing then, and M^hen some new 
maps of the United States were made, with seven or 
eight hundred miles more of our domain bordering on 
the Pacific Ocean, and a vast territory to the southwest, 
our country assumed a better shape, was better propor- 
tioned. I always liked to study maps, and never look on 



REMINISCENCES. 269 

a map of our country without a feeling of pride, nor with- 
out seeing with the mind's eye the maps used when I 
went to scliool; that long stretch of Atlantic sea coast 
and the little strip on the Pacilic. But after the Mexican 
war was over it w^as squared out to about the right shape. 
In July, 1848, about the time matters were fairly ad- 
justed between the United States and Mexico, gold in 
that newly acquired country was discovered in great 
quanities. The news flew from one end of the land to 
the other. There was great excitement among the peo- 
ple, even here in Mahaska county and Oskaloosa. Nearly 
all of our young men, and some who were not very young, 
were ready to sacrifice all they possessed for a California 
outfit. A California outfit for three or four men con- 
sisted of three yoke of oxen, a wagon, loaded with flour, 
bacon, coffee, tea, sugar and dried apples, with the 
necessary condiments, enough to last five or six months; 
bedding and two suits of substantial clothes. Yes, and 
each man must have a gun and a supply of amunition. 
Some of our young men were willing and glad to ex- 
change a quarter section of good land for such an out 
fit. What was a quarter section of land in Iowa com- 
pared with the bags of gold they were going to pick up 
in California? They could go out there and in a year or 
two come back with gold enough to buy a township. 
Such wonderful stories were told us of fortunes being 
picked up, sometimes in a day, that half the people, 
women as well as men, were crazy to go. 

The agricultural and horticultural resources of that 
grand country were scarcely thought of — it was nothing 
but gold. In the Spring of 1849 a large company of Os- 



270 MAHASKA COUNTY 

kaloosa people and others from the country round, more 
or less comfortably fixed for the trip, started on that 
long and tedious journey across the plains. The end of 
civilization was ''Kanesville,'' a small town or trading" 
point on the Missouri River, since known by the name of 
Council Bluffs. Immediately on crossing that river the 
plains began, which stretched away off to the West for 
hundreds and hundreds of miles, a barren waste, only in- 
habited by Indians and buffalo, and nobody seemed to 
think it ever would be inhabited by anything else — noth- 
ing would grow there but buifalo grass. Some whole 
families, and many of our splendid young men were in 
that train which left Oskaloosa for California in the 
Spring of '49, and on the spot where the great town of 
Omaha now^ stands, and that wonderful Inter-State Ex- 
position is now being held, \<dth tears in their eyes they 
looked across that mighty, muddy river and bade fare- 
well to Iowa and to civilization. They then cracked 
their whips and started across the plains. 

Some of the families went with the intention of stay- 
ing and making California their home, among them John 
Cameron, the good old Cumberland Presbyterian preach- 
er, with his wife, eight daughters, one son, six sons-in- 
law, one daughter-in-law and a host of grandchildren. 
Every one of that numerous family, old enough to know 
what piety meant, were pious people, and I have heard, 
had worship every night and morning on that long and 
perilous journey. I think, all that went in that first 
company from Oskaloosa lived to get through. But some 
of those strong young men who started with such glow- 
ing expectations, never came back. James and Th(mias 



UEMINiSCENC ES. 27 1 

McMurray, two excellent young- men, ^Yere cut down 
by death in young- manhood. Their bones are resting-, 
perhaps, in lonely g-raves in California. Rolla Smith, a 
fine young- man, tall and straigiit as an arrow, and Dr. 
Sampsell. a brilliant young physician, after working- in 
the g-old mines a year or two, with, no one knows wdiat 
success, boarded a vessel at San Francisco to come home, 
but vessel nor young- men v/ere ever heard of after. 
Stephen Edwards went to California with the Camerons, 
worked in the mines a few years, then went to the Wil- 
lamette Valley in Oreg-on, engaged in farming- and is now 
a wealthy retired old bachelor of Eugene City. 

Some of those stalwart young men who went in that 
train of 40ers, lived to return to their friends and homes. 
Perhaps none of them brought a very great amount of 
gold, but they all brought with them a much greater 
amount of knowledge than they had when they started 
awa}^ California was a good place to learn. Brilliant 
and scholarly men from all over the eastern states were 
digging gold along the creeks. Scholars, statesmen, 
poets, actors and politicians were mixed up with the un- 
learned prairie breaker from Iowa, or the hoop pole mer- 
chant from Illinois. The graduate from Yale washed 
out gold by the side of the champion corn-husker on the 
Wabash. The man who could recite every line of 
"Hamlet' ' from memory, had for his partner the man who 
could make more rails in a day than any man on Skunk 
river. 

The Nantucket whale fisher who had sailed on every 
ocean and knew every seaport in the world, bunked with 
the young fellow whose ambition had been to carry up 



272 MAHASKA COUNTY 

the truest corner in a log cabin and hew a puncheon the 
smoothest. Not all of our boys who went in '49 were 
unlettered and unlearned. Some of them were as bright 
as a new silver dollar, and could hold their own any- 
where, but others had not had the advantages of schools 
and knew little of what was in books. But most of them 
had been brought up in a school of honor and could be 
trusted with uncounted gold. 

x\fter their day's work had been done on the creek, 
this mixture of learned and unlearned would gather 
about the fire in their cabins, or shanties, and talk — they 
would talk of the countries they had seen, the books they 
had read, the speeches they had heard delivered by great 
statesmen and orators, the sermons heard by this or that 
bishop, the acts of congress, the different peoples of dif- 
ferent countries, with their ditferent characteristics, and 
a hundred other things. Our unsophisticated prairie 
breakers, corn buskers and hoop-pole cutters, listened, 
"caught on," and by that means and their own observa- 
tion gained a store of knowledge. When they came 
home it was easy to be seen they had acquired a self- 
possession and ease of manner, could talk fluently of 
courts and laws, and empires and republics, and the dif- 
ferent races inhabiting the different parts of the world, 
and so forth. They were as bright as the new gold coin 
in their pockets. 

We lost many excellent citizens in the great exodus 
to California in 184U and 1850, but their places were soon 
filled by other excellent people. While there was a rush 
to California to find gold, there was a rush to Iowa to 
find farms, and suitable locations for many other kinds 



REMINISCENCES. 273 

of business. Many of our prominent people came and 
settled here about that time, and among- others, Judge 
J. A. L. Crookham, who came here a young- man, and 
long before he was an old man he had acquired fortune 
and fame. 

Early in the fifties Mr. and Mrs. Jerome M. White 
came from Ohio and located in Oskaloosa. Mr. White 
opened out a store of g-eneral merchandise on the south 
side of the public square and did a good business. He 
was a many-sided business man, and could make things 
g-o in whatever line he chose to direct his efforts. He 
could sell goods, he could deal in horses, he could buy 
and sell lots, could build a house, move in, could sell it 
and move out again a little quicker than anybody I knew. 
Many of Oskaloosa's nice and valuable places were once 
the property of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. White. The lots 
upon which Mr. Hostetter's eleg-ant residence now stands 
was once their home. Thoug-h the house Mr. White 
built and occupied on that ground in 1854 was thought to 
be quite pretentious, it w^as long- since torn down and 
moved away. They once owned the ground and occupied 
a small frame house where Mr. McNeill's fine livery barn 
is now. That little frame house was moved away over 
on a hill on East C avenue Luid is standing- there to-day. 
I often drive by it, but never without thinking- of the 
happy times my husband and myself have enjoyed in that 
little old house with those charming people. My husband 
and I became acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. J. M. White 
very soon after they came to Oskaloosa, and a strong- 
friendship, such a friendship as only occurs between two 
families a few times in a whole lifetime, was formed be- 

18 



274 MAHASKA COUNTY 

tween us. The kind of friendship which neither time, 
nor distance, nor prosperity, nor adversity, nor any other 
creature lias ever broken. 

We were all young- away back in 1852; our hearts 
were light, the world looked bright, and everything- 
had a charm. My husband would hitch his chestnut 
sorrels to his wag^on in the Summer, and we would go 
out tog"ether on the Spring Creek hills and g^ather black- 
berries. In September we would drive over to the Des 
Moines and come home loaded down with wild g^rapes and 
plums. On the Fourth of July we would invite a few 
friends to join us and we would hie away to the banks of 
that beautiful river and have a "pic-nic" so full of inci- 
dents—they are fresh in our memories to-day! On Winter 
nights our song's rningled with the jing^le of sleigh-bells as 
we swiftly glided over the snowy ]3rairies or on the streets 
of the little town of Oskaloosa. We sang, we joked, we 
laughed! Nobody could tell more funny stories than 
Jerome, and nobody could tell them better. "Jerome 
and Lizzie" seemed to be a part of ourselves. It was al- 
ways a joy to see them come into our house, or for us to 
go to theirs. How much there was in a Summer or a 
Winter then! 

The prairies with their native grasses and Howxrs, 
the groves scattered here and there with their borders of 
hazel bushes, crab apples and crimson sumach; the great 
feathery bunches of golden rod and purple chrysanthe- 
mums, those beauties just completed the border, purple 
and gold. Nature knows how to arrange colors; the river 
wdth banks atangle with trees and vines, made us joy- 
ous, yet we hardly knew why. But we were young then, 



REMINISCENCES. 275 

and full of life and health and energy; little perplexities 
and annoyances were soon forgotten. The time when 
any of our little band would close their eyes forever on 
all that looked so bright, seemed vague and far away. 
Though we have been bereft of dear ones and had many 
a sorrow, we love to think and talk of the friends of long 
ago and of the by-gone da3^s. Our pleasure was not al- 
together in the frivolous; even if we were young, we en- 
joyed many a talk of the more serious and practical side 
of life. 

Mr, and Mrs. White were bright, educated and cul- 
tured people, and were gifted with a high sense of honor. 
Mrs. White had the distinction of being the possessor of 
the first piano ever brought to Oskaloosa, which was in 
the Summer of 1853. At that time they owned the hotel 
where the Downing is now, and Hugh McNeely was its 
proprietor. Mr. and Mrs. White took their meals at the 
hotel, but had rooms at our house — we never stayed apart 
very long in those days. We owned and occupied a two- 
story house at that time on the ground where the Bashaw 
Livery is now, Lot 5, Block 20, o. p., Oskaloosa. Mr. 
and Mrs. White occupied the east room up-stairs, and 
when that piano came and was being taken up to that 
room, it created a sensation. A crowd gathered about 
the door and gazed in wonder. Many of them had never 
seen a piano. 

Mrs. White was born and brought up in Brownsville, 
Penn. She practiced on that piano when she was Lizzie 
Copeland. When Mrs. White was a little girl she went 
to school with James G. Blaine and his cousins, the Gil- 
lespie girls. Her father was prominent in that part of 



276 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Pennsylvania as a journalist and politician, and was a 
member of the State Senate. He used to visit his daug^h- 
ter and her hasband in Oskaloosa. Mr. Copeland was 
one of the finest-looking men and most elegant gentle- 
men I ever met. 

In 1854 or 1855 a town was laid out on the Missouri 
River and called Sioux City. Mr. White, ccmceiving the 
idea that Sioux City was going to be a great place, 
rushed out there and bought a large tract of land in and 
around the town. It wasn't long until those dear friends 
of ours hied them away over miles and miles of unbroken 
and uninhabited country, to the little village w^hich it 
was expected was going to be the metropolis of the 
northwest. Sioux City was making a fair start toward 
greatness when the financial crash of 1857 gave it a back- 
set. The war of the rebellion coming on soon after gave 
it another backset. Mr. White abandoned his specula- 
tions in corner lots and went to the war. When the war 
was over, instead of going back to Sioux City, they loca- 
ted at Atchison, Kansas, where they made for themselves 
a lovely home on the Missouri bluff just above that city. 
I thought that home a charming place. Every room was 
just the right size and shape. Their grounds were one 
mass of fine fruits and flowers, and there was the most 
delightful view up and down the river from their broad 
veranda. 

Mr. and Mrs. White have no children, so when they 
feel disposed to take a trip they take one. They spent 
the whole winter in New Orleans during the Exposition, 
and they spent another winter in Florida. They visit 
the Federal Capital frequently. Mrs. White sometimes 



REMINISCENCES 277 

favors her home papers with spicy and interesting" let- 
ters, and she is perfectly capable of doing that kind of 
thing. She is a brilliant woman. Some five or six years 
ago they decided to spend a winter on the Pacific Coast. 
They went to Seattle, and made up their minds to spend 
the rest of their natural lives in a suburb of that city, as 
they had at last found the garden spot of the earth. 

A lady asked me not long ago if I remembered an 
entertainment which was given here a long time ago, 
called the "bear party," or the "bear supper,'' "it was 
something with Jieav to it." To which I replied: "I 
should say I did remember it, for I was there and par- 
took of a good-sized piece of that bear." "Do tell me 
about it," she remarked. Then I proceeded to tell her 
the following story of that function: 

Away back in the early fifties some old and very dear 
friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. White, owned the old 
frame hotel where the Downing House now stands, and for 
a tenant and proprietor they had one Hugh McNeely, a 
gentleman possessing various gifts and accomplishments. 
He was one of the first proprietors of the "Oskaloosa 
Herald." His talents as a journalist were sometimes 
displayed in the editorial columns of that paper. Mr. 
McNeely was versatile; he was vivacious; he was full of 
resources! After he had ceased to cater to the mental 
appetites of the resident public, he tried his hand at 
catering to the physical appetites of the traveling public. 
As a caterer Mr. McNeely was a success — for a while. 
His table fairly groaned with, the weight of good things 
spread thereon. To sit down to a dinner at that hostelry, 
where roast pig, roast turkey, venison and peach-cobbler 



S7B MAHASKA COUNTY 

was served, was nothing- unusual. Mr. McNeely was 
gifted with wonderful powers of conversation. There 
seemed to be no limit to his resources in that respect. 
He knew about all that was known in that day, and he 
seemed willing and anxious to give his guests the benefit 
of his knowledg-e. His log^ic was something- wonderful, 
and he could argue on any side of a question with equal 
clearness. His guests gazed, and listened with astonish- 
ment: 

"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, 
"•How one small head could carry all he knew." 

Our friend, Mr. Jerome White, had a wonderful liking 
for pets, in the way of wild animals. He bought a young 
deer and succeeded in making it very tame. It would 
come up to them and eat out of their hands. They al- 
lowed that deer great liberty, it was so tame. Everybody 
about town knew that deer, but to make sure no one 
would mistake it for a wild deer when it might chance to 
be grazing on the common, Mrs. White fastened a piece 
of red flannel around its neck. But with all that, some 
one was ruthless enough to shoot that deer. 

Mr. White's next attempt at taming a wild animal for 
the solid pleasure of its society was with a badger. The 
badger was not a success; boys would come around and 
poke sticks at it, which didn't seem to be particularly 
enjoyed by the badger, however much it may have been 
enjoyed by the boys. So one day the badger became 
desperate, broke his chain, and escaped to parts unknown. 
These misfortunes happened to Mr. White in the year 
1852. He was almost inconsolable when the badger made 
his escape, but in a few months after, some time in the 



REMINISCENCES. 279 

summer of 1853, he met a man somewhere who had for 
sale a larg^e black bear, already sufficiently domesticated 
to be led by a chain. Mr. White purchased the bear and 
was happy. He had him taken around to the back-yard 
of his hotel, had the chain made fast to a stake, and the 
bear was placed in Mr. McNeely's care. Mr. McNeely 
was delighted. His foresight was keen. A great feast 
and a great "hit" in the hotel business loomed up before 
his mental vision. Game of other kinds was quite plen- 
tiful, but a whole bear served at one meal was something 
unusual. And that was what Mr. McNeely mentally 
proposed to do, if Mr. White could be induced to have 
that bear slain. Mr. McNeely knew his powers of per- 
suasion; he would manage it. That bear soon became 
so accustomed to seeing a crowd of men and boys around 
that he paid no attention to them, but just kept on eating. 
He fared sumptuously every day; devoured great quan- 
tities of food from Mr. McNeely's table, and waxed fatter In 
and fatter. Mr. McNeely did not "reckon without his 
host," for in course of time, after many persuasions and 
logical arguments, Mr. White was led to see that a great 
bear feast would not only be a bonanza for Mr. McNeel}^ 
in the hotel business, but w^ould advertise the house and 
thereby bring him a purchaser. In those days every- 
body's property was for sale or trade. Speculation w^as 
rife in Oskaloosa; so Mr. White consented to have the 
bear sacrificed, but it was "stipulated in the bond" that 
Mrs. White should retain a considerable portion of the 
oil. Pure bear's oil at that time was valuable. It was 
supposed to add greatly to the beauty of the hair, and 
was much used for that purpose. I remember seeing a 



^80 MAHASKA COUNTY 

young man in church one day whose hair was so com- 
pletely saturated with bear's oil that it fairly dripped off. 

Mr. McNeely did not swerve from his purpose. A 
week or two before Christmas he made know^n to the cit- 
izens of Oskaloosa and surrounding- country, that a func- 
tion such as had never been witnessed nor enjoyed by 
society in this part of Iowa would be given at the Eagle 
Hotel, on December 24th, 1853. Dinner would be served 
at 3:30 p. m. The cuisine would surpass anything ever 
attempted in this community. Many rare viands would 
be served at that banquet, but wdiat was most unique, a 
large black bear would be slaughtered and the whole of 
it placed before the guests, prepared in every manner 
known to the cuisine art. After dinner the dining-room 
would be cleared and those who chose to do so could 
"trip the light fantastic toe." 

When the afternoon of the 24th arrived, the ellfe of 
Oskaloosa and country 'round began to arrive, and soon 
the Eagle Hotel was filled to overflowing. Mr. McNeely 
did all, and more than he had led the people to think he 
would do. The bear was fine; the banquet was a grand 
success financially, and every other way. Everybody 
went away more than satisfied. They had had all the 
bear meat they wanted. As the bear was the principal 
feature of the entertainment, some of the young men 
called it the "Bear party," and some were rude enough 
to call it the "Bear dance." Tliat bear was large and fat, 
and when he come to be slaughtered and dressed, such 
quantities of "y;?//-^ bear's oil" I don't think had ever 
been seen by the "oldest inhabitant." It took a great 
big kettle to hold it. Mrs. White was an expert in what- 



nEMlNlSCENCES. 281 

ever she undertook, and she made a success in rendering 
that oil, as she did of everything else, and gallons of nice 
clear oil was the result. After she had given me a great 
big bottle full, and had shared liberally with her other 
friends, she had quantities of it left. 

Mrs. White had a brother living here, a young gen- 
tleman, Mr. Tern Copeland. Though I have not men- 
tioned him before in this story, he was one of us, and 
was generally, like Mr. and Mrs. White, mixed up in all 
our social affairs. Tern was engaged to a young lady in 
Brownsville, Penn. The ceremony was to take place in 
the Spring of 1854. There being an excellent tailor in 
Oskaloosa, and Mr. Copeland being fastidious in dress, 
employed this tailor to make his wedding suit, of black 
broadcloth; everything belonging to that suit was perfect. 
When he brought it home from the tailor, his sister, Mrs. 
White, assisted him in folding every individual piece and 
placing them in his trunk. After those wedding gar- 
ments, and some other articles belonging to Mr. Cope- 
land's wardrobe were all neatly folded and placed in that 
trunk, there seemed to be a little space left, where some- 
thing else might be put in. The packing was supposed 
to be done, and Fern went off down town, but as Mrs. 
White was putting on the finishing touches, she fell to 
soliloquizing: "This trunk is not packed tight at all; it 
had just as well be as full as it will hold, as any other 
way — in fact, I know it will be better to have things 
packed in ais close as they can be— won't be near so apt 
to jostle around and get mussed. I'm going to send a 
lot of that bear's oil to the folks at Brownsville. Won't 
it surprise them to get a bottle of bear's oil from me and 



282 MAHASKA COUNTY 

learn that I rendered that oil my own self? I imagine I 
hear their remarks about Lizzie frying out bear's oil away 
in the wilds of Iowa. But they will be glad enough to 
get it. 

Let me see! There's Aunt Charlotte, I'll send her a 
bottle. I imagine I see her trying to put some of it on 
Uncle Josie's hair, and Uncle Josie saying: "Ah, Char- 
lotte, go away with that foolishness!" I'll send Jennie 
Seawright a bottle, and oh, there's Lib Gillespie! I'll 
send her a bottle; I believe I'll send her two bottles with 
a note saying: "You can, if you choose, present this to 
that delectable cousin of yours, Jim Blaine, with the 
compliments of the chief' manager of the Bear's Oil Fac- 
tory, situated near the mighty Skunk." I'll write a note 
and fasten it around each bottle, and be particular to in- 
form each one that I know this oil to be absolutely pure. 
So she proceeded to fill up some bottles with bear's oil 
and cork them, as she supposed, so tight that not a drop 
could escape. Then she slipped them down in the cor- 
ners of the trunk. Then everything was packed and 
ready for Tern to start oft" to get married. 

My husband frequently made trips to Keokuk with a 
two-horse wagon and would haul back a load of goods. 
There were no railroads. Sometimes several gentlemen 
having business in Keokuk would go with him and return 
by stage. It was on one of these trips, as Mr. Copeland 
was starting on that momentous journey, that he, with 
several other gentlemen, accompanied him to Keokuk. 
Mr. Phillips drove a spirited team and drove fast, paying 
little attention to ruts and rough places, regardless of 
the damage which might accrue to Mr. C.'s trunk. They 



REMINISCENCES. 283 

joked and told funny stories and had a lively time, and 
when they reached Keokuk Mr. Copeland found that his 
boat would not go down the river for a day or two. He 
and Mr. Phillips roomed together at a hotel. When they 
awoke in the morning Mr. Copeland looked out of the 
window and remarked, "Well, this is a fine morning, and 
as I am going to be in the city all day I think I will dress 
up and be somebody. I will run out and get shaved, and 
you just wait; I will be back directly and dress up and 
let you see how I will look in my '"standing up'' suit. 
Mr. Phillips waited. Pretty soon Tern came back look- 
ing the very picture of happiness. He went to his trunk, 
unlocked it, raised the lid, when — Oh, horrors! The 
stoppers had come out and that bear's oil had run all 
over his wedding clothes. I think I will not record the 
remarks he made when he found utterance. He was for- 
tunate in finding somebody in Keokuk who was skillful 
enough to remove the bear's oil from that elegant wed- 
ding suit, so he went on to Brownsville and was married 
to Miss Libbie Duncan, and straightway brought her to 
Oskaloosa. We had many a laugh at his expense over 
that bear's oil calamity. 



284 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XX. 

As T have remarked before, along- in the early fifties 
there was much buying and selling- and building- and 
moving-. My husband and I boug"ht and sold and moved 
nearly as often as Mr. and Mrs. White did. In the 
Spring- of 1852 we bought the Oskaloosa House and 
moved from our farm, where we had first gone to house- 
keeping, into that hostlery, kept it one year, then sold it 
to Samuel McMurray and John Prest. In the Spring of 
1853 we bought and moved to the place where the Bashaw 
Livery barn now is. In April, 1854, we traded that place 
to John N. Kinsman for what we thought the nicest home 
in the suburbs of Oskaloosa. It contained about three 
acres of land, a frame house of five rooms, a cellar, good 
stable, lots of fruit trees and shade trees. It was about 
half way between the public square and our farm. The 
house stood on the spot where Mr. Esgen's elegant resi- 
dence is now; was moved after we sold it to a place a 
little farther west, and is now the home of Mrs. O'Hara. 
That house was built and owned and all those trees 
planted by Charles Blackburn. Mr. Blackburn was an 



REMINISCENCES. 285 

Engiishman, and was a carpenter by trade. He was a 
brother to Henry Blackburn, who was once treasurer of 
Mahaska County. Charles Blackburn and family went 
to California in 1852. When we moved there in the 
Spring of 1854 our nearest neighbors were the Hobsons, 
who lived on an acre lot which I heard him say he paid 
one hundred dollars tor. That lot has since been subdi- 
vided and part of it is occupied by the handsome resi- 
dences of Colonel McNeill and Thomas Seevers. When 
we moved to that place Wm. T. Smith was building' the 
brick house where Mrs. Judg"e Johnson now lives. In a 
few months Mr. Smith and family moved in, then they 
were our nearest neig"hbors. They were charming neigh- 
bors and very superior people, and to drop in and spend 
an evening with them was a joy. Their conversation 
was not a string of platitudes. When they talked they 
said something. They had two little children. Omer 
was a baby, and Laura, who is now Mrs. Byron V. Seev- 
ers, and one of Oskaloosa's most intellectual and cultured 
women, was then a little girl three or four years old. 
She never romped and played, liked children usually do, 
but was the quietest little lady I ever saw. 

When we lived at that place the forty acres where 
the boulevard and so many nice residences now are was 
a common, where our cows and pigs grazed and rooted 
at their own pleasure. The first house buUt on that forty 
was in 1856 by the Macons; the house is there yet, at the 
southeast corner of Eighth Street and C Avenue. There 
were three brothers of the Macons, very brilliant and 
fine-looking men. One was a doctor, the others lawyers. 
They only lived in Oskaloosa a few years. The house 



286 MAHASKA COUNTY 

they built was thought to be very elegant at the time. 
That house for many years was the home of the saintly 
Mary Jane Cook. Many houses were built in 1854 and 
1855. between our house and the town proper. The 
"Gospel Ridge" school-house was built in 1854, and the 
first school strictly under school laws was opened in that 
school-house in the Spring of 1855. There w^ere several 
candidates for the position of principal. My brother, 
Calvin W. Pritchard, who had come to visit me, among 
the rest. He was just from Earlham College, Richmond, 
Indiana. My brother failed to get the place. The suc- 
cessful man was a Mr. Goshorn, who only lived a couple 
of months. He died in a house which stood where Esquire 
Weaver lives, corner Seventh Street and First Avenue. 
In the course of a year or two many families had built 
houses and settled about us. Among others was a Mr. 
and Mrs. John Lacey, who came from Virginia, and for 
a time occupied a house in our neighborhood. Mr. and 
Mrs. Lacey were unostentatious, common sense kind of 
people. Mr. Lacey was a brick layer by occupation. 
Oskaloosa was growing so rapidly that Mr. Lacey found 
plenty to do in his line. 

They had three sons— James, John F., and William 
R. James, the eldest, had not quite reached the age 
when a boy begins to be called a young man. John and 
Will were lads in their early teens. Those Lacey boys 
were bright without being pert. They assisted their 
father in his business, and went to the public school 
when they had a chance. I never heard of their sowing 
a crop of wild oats, therefore they have not had the ne- 
cessity of reaping what is generally thought to be an 



REMINISCENCES. 287 

unprofitable crop. ]Mr. and Mrs. John Lacey were pos- 
sessed of g-ood principles, good judg-ment, and were 
patriotic. When the war of the rebellion came, they 
saw their sons, James and John F., like many others of 
Mahaska's splendid young men, march away, filled with 
the fire of patriotism, to that terrible confiict. James 
Lacey's young life was sacrificed on tlie altar of his 
country. He sleeps in Forest Cemetery, where rest his 
father and mother, John and Eleanor Lacey. John F. 
Lacey looks just like his father looked at his age. John 
F. was only twenty years old when he went to the war. 
He sutfered hunger and thirst and cold and heat and 
loathsome prisons. He was in many terrible battles, 
where rebel bullets fiew thick around him, but some way 
he escaped those bullets, and when the war was over he 
came home all safe and sound, covered with honor. He 
studied law, was admitted to the bar, and from the first 
was prosperous in his profession. He didn't wait until 
he got rich, but went right oft' and married Miss Mattie 
Newell, one of Oskaloosd.'s popular and bright girls. 
John F. Lacey has gone on from one degree of prosper- 
ity and popularity to another through all these years. He 
was a member of the Iowa Legislature before he was 
thirty. From the first day his shingle was hung out as 
attorney-at-law he has been considered one of the most 
prominent attorneys in the town. He was able to build 
and furnish an elegant home when elegant homes in Oska- 
loosa were few and far between. That home to-day is 
one of the fine places of which Oskaloosa can boast of 
so many. Not only the people of Mr. Lacey's own town 
and county love to honor him, but the Sixth District has 



288 MAHASKA COUNTY 

repeatedly chosen him to represent them in Congress. 
They have never had reason to be ashamed of his acts in 
that responsible position. Mr. and Mrs. Lacey are hos- 
pitable almost to a fault and charming- entertainers. 
They are not only that, but are what we all understand to 
mean good neighbors. I know what I am talking about 
when I say they are good neighbors. 

Mr. and Mrs. John F. Lacey would get out of bed at 
any hour in the night, no matter how cold or stormy or 
sleety, and go, if necessary, to the relief of a sick neigh- 
bor or neighbor's child, without seeming to think they 
had done anything worth speaking of. Wealth, nor 
honor, nor attention in high places have any power to 
take that manly and womanly tenderness out of their 
hearts. They know from experience w^hat it is to be 
bereft. Four bright, and beautiful, and happy children 
once filled their home with love and joy and hopes which 
come to the hearts of tender and alfectionate parents. 
There were Nellie and Ray and Katie and Bernice. But 
death broke into that worthy and happy family. Ray and 
Katie, within a few days of each other, were taken from 
their lovely home on earth to Him who said: "Suffer the 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for 
of such is the Kingdom of God." There is a beautiful 
spot in Forest Cemetery where two little graves lie side 
by side shaded by native forest trees. The birds of many 
summers have come and sang a requiem over the spot 
where lie all that is mortal of Ray and "Dumpsie." 

Nellie married Mr. James B. Brewster, son of Dr. 
Brewster, a prominent citizen of Oskaloosa. James B. 
Brewster is a bright young business man, who from his 



REMINISCENCES. 289 

boyhood has been a favorite among Oskaloosa's people. 
Mr. and Mrs. Brewster now live in San Francisco, and 
from what our soldier boys say, dispense hospitality much 
on the Lacey style. Bernice is a charming young lady, 
and is having what girls of her age call a good time in 
Washington. Mr. and Mrs. John F. Lacey have seen 
much of our own country, and have twice made extensive 
tours through Europe. Mrs. John F. Lacey is a talented 
woman, knows what is going on in the world, and when 
it comes to state affairs is about as bright as her husband, 
which is saying a good deal. 

A gentleman who was well acquainted with Iowa, 
her towns and prominent citizens, was once talking to me 
about the peculiarities of different towns. He said: 
"Towns, like people, have each an individuality.'' Then 
he went on to say: "Knoxville has more good singers 
than any town of its size I know. Fairfield has more 
reading people and reading circles in proportion to the 
number of its inhabitants, and Grinnell's hobby is tem- 
perance."" He mentioned a number of other Iowa towns 
and the habits and tastes of their people. I asked him, 
"What about Oskaloosa?" "Well," he said, "Oskaloosa 
has more brilliant and well-informed women and beautiful 
lawns than any town of its size in the State of Iowa." 

There are scores of brilliant and well-informed 
women in Oskaloosa. Some I have already mentioned in 
this story, but some I have not mentioned. There is Mrs. 
Albert W. Swalm. For all around scholarship, breadth 
of knowledge, gentle manners, and general level-headed- 
ness, she has no superior among all the superior women 
of my acquaintance, and I know a good many, "The 

19 



290 MAHASKA COUNTY 

heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he 
shall have no need of spoil." Her husband, Albert W. 
Swalm, is a man of whom Oskaloosa's people feel proud. 
We old settlers remember when his father, after a linger- 
ing sickness, died and left a wife and family of small 
children almost penniless. Albert was a brave boy, not 
afraid nor ashamed to do anything in his power that was 
honest and honorable to maintain himself and help his 
widowed mother. People were not long in discovering 
that Albert W. Swalm was a boy of more than ordinary 
ability. He was employed in a printing office, which is 
a good place for a boy to learn. He went to the war and 
came home with an honorable record. He engaged in 
newspaper business, and directly papers from all over 
Iowa were copying smart things from "Al" Swalm's 
paper. He was a success in the newspaper business and 
was a success financially, but his greatest achievement 
was in winning Miss Pauline Given for his wife. Albert 
W. Swalm has the confidence and respect of his fellow 
citizens, and has been chosen to fill many positions of 
honor and trust. By sheer force of character he has 
risen step by step until he has been given the position of 
United States Consul at Montevideo. His letters from 
that far-away place are full of his old-time, original say- 
ings which strike one where and when they are not ex- 
pecting to be struck. He always had the faculty of 
saying things in a way that nobody else ever thought of. 
Mr. and Mrs. Swalm own one of Oskaloosa's nice and 
commodious homes, with one of those lawns my friend 
was talking about. Their daughter and only child, Nina, 
is a very talented girl, inheriting the level-headed sense 
of her parents. 



REMINISCENCES. 291 

Mr. Swalm's house is in a neighborhood of fine houses 
and fine lawns. There is John Kalbach's and the Seev- 
erses, Will Kalbach's, Will Hawkins', and Mrs. Ninde's 
charming place — all along there. No wonder they call 
that place "Paradise Block." If I should name all the 
grand and elegant homes in that part of Oskaloosa, the 
catalogue would fill a page. To drive by those places 
when roses are in bloom, and the grass is so evenly shorn 
that not a straggling spire is to be seen about the roots 
of any of those fine trees, is a joy. To me it is a joy 
mingled with sadness. I remember a time when that 
beautiful place was a field, enclosed with a high staked 
and ridered rail fence, and my young husband plowed the 
ground and marked it off in rows and I followed him and 
dropped corn. Yes, I have droppe'd the corn and my 
husband plowed it and raised a magnificent crop on "Par- 
adise Block" and "Elvyn Place," and where dozens of 
fine mansions are standing now. That was more than 
half a century ago. Such beautiful grounds, and homes 
of such architectural beauty had never entered my imag- 
ination. Two of the finest residences which were in Os- 
kaloosa when I dropped that corn are here to-day and 
are standing on the same places they stood on then. If 
any of Oskaloosa's young folks would like to see them, I 
can tell them exactly where they are to be found. One 
is the first house east of the Salvation Army Barracks, 
and the other is the first house north of Pickett's drug 
store, on First Street. I hope those old houses will not 
be torn down nor moved away while I live, there are so 
many pleasant recollections connected with them. The 
house on First Street was owned in the very early days 



292 MAHASKA COUNTY 

by a Mrs. Wrigiit; her daug-hter Anna was married to 
Henry Temple in that house on the 18th of January, 184(3, 
the same day that I was married. Weddings in this re- 
gion in those days were not attended with much cere- 
mony. But Mrs. Wright went a little beyond the usual 
custom by inviting quite a number of guests to her 
daughter's wedding. 

But I must go back to the place where I planted 
corn. I want to tell something more about the Judge 
Seevers place and its twin, the Ninde mansion. I re- 
member when the Judge Seevers home was tht fine place 
of Oskaloosa, though it was thought to be almost out of 
town. It was the first house erected in this region with 
Mansard, or French roof, or approaching modern archi- 
tecture. When I drove by it not long ago and saw those 
handsome verandas torn down, and piles of brick on that 
lovely lawn, I wondered what they wanted to change it 
for. It had always looked so grand, so solid and so per- 
fect. But the thought came to me, "One generation 
passeth away and another followeth," with more ad- 
vanced ideas and tastes. The new generation want new 
things. Four generations have inhabited that stately 
home at the same time. James Seevers, the Judge's 
father, and Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Seevers' mother, occupied 
honored places in that home for many years, before they 
were called to a "home not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens." I thought as I drove by of the compli- 
mentary things I had heard said, of tenderness and rev- 
erence shown that aged father and mother by Judge and 
Mrs. Seevers and their children. With only a driveway 
between, the beautiful grounds of the Seevers and Ninde 



UE M IN ISC ENC ES . . t>98 

places reach from street to street, in one expanse of 
well-kept lawn, shaded by fine trees. Mrs. Ninde's resi- 
dence, like its mate, is well back from the street, and 
while not quite so elaborate in its architecture, is hand- 
some, commodious, solid, and is the picture of comfort 
and restfulness. 

Henry P. Ninde came to Oskaloosa with his wife and 
family of small children something over thirty years ago 
with rather small means, but was just in the prime of 
life, and was full of energy and the very picture of 
healthy, vigorous manhood. Mr. Ninde was a fine look- 
ing man, rather tall, and had a pleasant word and smile 
for everybody. He was a worker who not only sought to 
provide well for his own family but was an earnest pro- 
moter of every public enterprise — moral, educational, or 
financial, for the advancement of Oskaloosa. He worked 
to locate railroads in Oskaloosa, worked for the perfect- 
ing of our public schools, and was a prominent factor in 
locating and establishing Penn College. I think his 
daughter was the first graduate from that institution. 
Although Mr. Ninde labored much for the public good, 
his heart and affections were in his own home. He loved 
his family and was proud of them. 

Mr. Ninde and my husband were at one time in bus- 
iness together. They were always warm friends and had 
many confidential talks. One day my husband, on coming 
home from their office, remarked to me, "Well, I had a 
long talk with Henry to-day about our families and per- 
sonal affairs. Henry thinks his wife and children are 
about right, and I guess they are. He said in our talk 
to-day, 'H ever a man was blessed with wife and chil- 



294 MAHASKA COUNTY 

clreii, I am that man. Every individual member of my 
family are all that I could desire.' " 

Mr. Ninde was quite successful in business. In a 
few years he was able to purchase the ground and build 
the fine house I have been trying" to describe, and besides 
he owned many other pieces of property in and around 
Oskaloosa. To the surprise of everybody that strong 
man was cut down by death in the midst of his days. On 
a massive granite block in Forest Cemetery are some 
words and figures which tell the passer-by when Henry 
P. Ninde was born and when he died. His son Linden is 
sleeping near by, and Summer's blossoms shed their fra- 
grance o'er their graves. Linden Ninde gave up his 
young life in the very bloom of youth, but not before he 
had shown himself to be a fine business man and a de- 
voted son and brother. 

Mrs. Ninde is a lovely lady, interesting and intelli- 
gent, honored and respected by her neighbors and all 
who are favored with her acquaintance. Though bereft 
of a devoted husband and a devoted son, Mrs. Ninde is 
blessed with five lovely daughters, every one of whom a 
mother might well be proud, and a son whose generous 
acts and lavish kindness toward his mother and sisters 
deserve stronger words of praise than I am capable of 
expressing. I have read in fiction, perhaps, of sons and 
brothers as generous, capable, and filial. But in real 
life I have never known but one Elvyn Ninde. He is a 
great traveller, and has visited and done a successful 
business in every civilized and almost every uncivilized 
country on the face of the earth. He has accumulated 
wealth, and has gathered trophies, valuable, beautiful. 



IIEMINISCENC ES. 295 

and curious, from every part of every continent and 
from the isles of the sea. He has spent his wealth lav- 
ishly, not only in beautifying- and making- comfortable 
and eleg-ant his mother's home, but his given his sisters 
every advantag-e of education. After lavishing- wealth 
and luxuries on his mother and sisters until they had all 
that heart could wish, he turned his attention and ener- 
g-ies to improving- the town. A park laid out and g-raded 
and planted in trees at great expense, a long- row of 
stylish and commodious dwelling-s with terraced g-rounds 
of g-reat beauty, is the result. That part of Oskaloosa 
which we all admire and feel proud of is very api)ropri- 
ately named "Elvyn Place." 

Dr. M. L. Jackson came and located in Oskaloosa in 
1853 when he was a very young- man, a dentist by profes- 
sion. Though he was young he had already, by good 
business sense, sober habits and industry, acccumulated 
means sufficient to make a fair start in the little town of 
Oskaloosa. In 1852 A. G. Phillips, my father-in-law, 
went to California, leaving four of his younger children, 
who became members of our family. They were: Joan, 
James, Sinclair and Louellin. Joan, whom we called 
"Jo," was a lovely girl, handsome, sweet and womanly. 
Not long after Dr. Jackson hung out his shingle in Oska- 
loosa he began to come to our house a courting, and when 
Jo was only a little more than eighteen years old, on 
November 1st, 1855, she and Dr. Jackson were married. 
We were living then in what we called the Charley Black- 
burn house, which I have already mentioned, and the 
wedding occurred in the house in which Mrs, O'Hara 
lives. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. 



296 maSaska county 

Erwin Carson, a Presbyterian minister. Dr. Jackson 
was a tall, fine-looking man; everybody called him a 
handsome man. Jo was handsome, too. Though more 
than forty years have come and gone, I can see her as 
she looked then, with fair hair, fair complexion, pink 
cheeks and a pleasant smile. The Dr. and Jo straight- 
way went to housekeeping in a small house a little way 
up the street, west of our house. That street, which is 
now A Avenue was then called Liberty Street. The Dr. 
has always been careful and prosperous in business; has 
always loved his home and provided bountifully for his 
family. In a few years he built a beautiful and commo- 
dious home on East High Avenue, which at that time 
was the handsomest place in that part of town, where 
are so many nice places now. The Dr. took much pains 
in beautifying his grounds, and Jo was a model house- 
keeper. Their three sons and two daughters have grown 
to be men and women in that home; some have married 
and left the home where they were born, to make homes 
for themselves. Harry, the eldest, was tall and hand- 
some, with the most pleasing manners. 

Some ten or twelve years ago Harry and his brother 
Dwight, being seized with the spirit of adventure, went 
with Elvyn Ninde to Australia. Dwight came home in 
three or four years full of knowledge and experience, 
but all that is mortal of handsome, smiling Harry lies 
buried in an Episcopal cemetery in that far away country. 

Gertrude, the oldest daughter, who was idolized by 
her parents, and had a happy and light-hearted girlhood, 
married Oscar Green, one of the solid business men of 
Fort Dodge, Iowa. Oscar and Gertrude have two of the 



REMINISCENCES. 297 

smartest little boys that ever was. They can tell more 
about the wars oar country has eng-aged in than any boys 
of their age I ever knew. They are nice boys, and have 
nice names, Robert and Richard. Gertrude is a model 
mother, and Oscar is a son that Dr. Jackson is justly 
proud of. 

Dwight and Will are fine looking men, are tall and 
straight, and are bright and capable business men. The 
Dr. and Jo traveled life's journey and shared each 
other's joys and griefs for more than forty years. But a 
time came when that devoted wife and mother went out 
of that home she had so g^racefully adorned, never to re- 
turn. The husband, whose life from young manhood up 
had been a life of devoted tenderness to wife and chil- 
dren, was faithful to the end. He and their sons and 
daughters left nothing undone which love could devise. 
Lizzie, the youngest daughter and petted child, was un- 
tiring in devotion and kindness to her sick mother, and 
now she alone is left to comfort her father in that home 
once so full of life. 

D wight and Will have launched out in business for 
themselves. Will, the youngest, who looks like his father 
did when a young man, is not married, but Dwight, after 
waiting until he was bordering on old bachelorhood, mar- 
ried Miss Myrtle Dixon, a young lady possessing many 
amiable traits of character. 

When I think of the time when Dr. Jackson was a 
young man, there comes to my mind many other young 
men who were his friends and associates in the days when 
life looked bright, fame and fortune were just a little 
way ahead, and death seemed far away. There were 



208 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Samuel A. Rice and his brother, Elliott Rice, William 
Loug-hridge, Joseph F. Smith, William Wells, Dr. Rhine- 
hart, Philip Myers, Dr. Hopkins, John R. Needham, Fos- 
ter L. Downing-, Jesse Loring^ and John Jones — not one 
of them of the commonplace or mediocre sort of young 
men. Whether in a business or professional line, every 
one made his mark. They were among the men who 
were the pride of Oskaloosa in her young days. But 
where are they now? Those young men who started out 
in life with Dr. Jackson and were his associates in young 
manhood have, every one that I have mentioned, joined 
the great majority. Most of their names can be found 
carved on marble shaft or granite block in Forest Ceme- 
tery, our sacred city of the dead. Their graves have 
been covered with the grass of many summers and the 
snows of many winters. 

There is a spot in Forest Cemetery where sleeps 
one who in childhood, on that very spot, with her little 
brothers ran and played and laughed and gathered nuts 
and wild flowers. A bending willow growls there now, 
under whose sweeping branches is a slab of granite 

whereon is carved: 

Joan Phillips Jackson, 

Wife of Dr. M. L. Jackson, 

Born, August 9th, 1837, 

Died, March 19th, 1896. 

I have mentioned a good many of Oskaloosa's nice 
houses, nice lawns, and nice people, but have only noticed 
a few in comparison to the number. If I should tell of 
half the nice places I know with their pretty surround- 
ings, my story would reach a great length. 



IIEMINISCENCES. 290 

Mr. L. L. Hull has done much toward making" thing's 
pretty in and around Oskaloosa. He owns and occupies 
one of the finest homes on East High avenue, which he 
keeps in such a high state of neatness and order that it 
is a pleasure to drive by and look at it. Mr. Hull owns 
many houses in town, and all are so well kept that one 
who knows him and his tastes could drive about the city 
and pick out the places belong-ing to him. Mr. Hull 
brought the first lawm mower to Oskaloosa, and is entitled 
to the credit of setting the example of beautifying lawns 
by using that implement. He has been a successful bus- 
iness man. Having come from Virginia to Oskaloosa 
when a young man away back in the sixties, with only a 
few hundred dollars, he is now one of the wealthy men 
of the town. He married Miss Eliza Cobb, grand- 
daughter of Willard Cobb and niece of Mrs. Dart and 
Mrs. Street, whom I have mentioned before in this story. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hull are both fine looking, what one would 
call distinguished looking persons. Mr. Hull is one of 
the directors of Forest Cemetery, and has done much to- 
ward making that place so sacred to many of us, and the 
beautiful place that it is. Lena, only daughter and only 
child of Mr. and Mrs. Hull, was taken from her home on 
earth to that "house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens," when a beautiful little girl of ten years. No 
spot in Forest Cemetery is more lovingly cared for nor 
more beautifully adorned than the spot where in her mar- 
ble bed sleeps little Lena Hull. I give Mr. Hull credit, 
which he justly deserves, for a large share in making 
things attractive in and around Oskaloosa. 

But there is another man who, away back in the early 



300 MAHASKA COUNTY 

fifties, had the means and the taste and the energ-y, and 
had much to do with making- "Paradise Block" and its 
neighbors the charming places their owners enjoy, and 
we all admire to-day. That man is Wm. T. Smith. Mr. 
Smith owned several acres of land in what was then the 
suburbs of Oskaloosa. He built a house which we thought 
very stately and elegant, and it was for that day. Mrs. 
Judge Johnson owns and lives in it now. It is a nice 
home even in this day of nice homes. We were Mr. 
Smith's neighbors for about two years, and we thought 
the land lay about right all around there, just as nature 
made it. We thought it had about the proper slope and 
didn't need any digging" down or filling up. There was a 
gentle slope to the west and off to the east it was level. 
Mr. Smith's house was only a little below the highest 
point on his land, but he seemed to think it would add to 
the beauty of his grounds to be leveled up on the west 
and north. There were no trees there then, only bare 
prairies. Directly after Mr. Smith moved in his new 
house, he set a man to hauling dirt and placing it on the 
west side of his house, and as long- as we lived there he 
kept one team, and sometimes several teams, hauling 
dirt from the east end of his land and piling it on the 
west. Month in and month out that dirt hauling went 
on. I don't think Mr. Smith expected it would be quite 
such a job when he begun; but after beginning, it was 
hard to find a stopping-place. I had never seen a private 
enterprise on quite so extensive a scale. I used to think 
of the time when I was a child, and watched men digging- 
down hills and filling up valleys in building the national 
road in Indiana. After Mr. Smith had gotten the grounds 



REMINISCENCES. 301 

about his house sufficiently filled and leveled, he had the 
place which is now called ''Paradise Block" raised sev- 
eral feet higher than it was in its natural state. Then 
he planted trees all over and around that block. They 
were beautiful trees, some of rare varieties. He also 
planted many rare trees about his own home. Mr. Hull, 
too, may thank Mr. Smith for some of the rare trees of 
which he is so proud. 

I don't believe that John Kalbach, nor Albert Swalm, 
nor Henry Wetherell, nor Dr. Crowder, nor James Atch- 
ison, nor L. L. Hull, nor lots of others around there are 
as grateful as they ought to be to Mr. Smith for making 
Paradise Block and surroundings the high and dry and 
attractive place they are so proud of. One man spends 
his time, his energies, and his money in planting trees 
and beautifying grounds — another enjoys the fruits 
thereof. The dwellers on Paradise Block swing in their 
hammocks, read their newspapers, and smoke their 
cigars in the shade of the trees on those fine grounds, 
just as like as not without giving a thought to the man 
who planned and made them so charming. 

When we lived in tlie Charley Blackburn house and 
in the neighborhood of what is now Paradise Block, the 
street which is now called A Avenue did not reach our 
place, but merged into the Iowa City road a block or two 
west of our house, and in order to straighten that street 
and make it run parallel with High Street the city bought 
thirty feet off of our front yard, which made Wm. T. 
Smith's grounds extend that much farther north. I don't 
know how Mr. Smith fixed it with the city. A part at 
least, of Mr. Achison's and Mr. Hull's fine places, w^as 



302 MAHASKA COUNTY 

once the Iowa City road. Somewhere near the north- 
west corner of John Kalbach's fine grounds was a high 
post on which was a sign informing the traveling public 
that it was sixty-eight miles to Iowa City. In order that 
the wayfaring man might know which way to go to reach 
the capital of Iowa, a hand was painted on the signboard 
with the index finger pointing east. 

Our grounds extended west to that little creek or 
slough with the willow fringed banks. Just across the 
slough west, was a grassy place of a few acres, all open 
common, and while we lived there, in 1855 or 1856, Jim 
Lane, with four hundred men, camped there a day and a 
night. They were on their way to Kansas to fight "Bor- 
der Rulfains." What exciting times those were! Mis- 
souri and Arkansas sending men to Kansas to vote and 
fight for slavery. New England and many of the North- 
western states sending men to Kansas to vote and fight 
against slavery, or against making Kansas a slave state. 
But I am not going to talk of politics. I couldn't say 
anything worth mentioning if I should try. I only wanted 
to tell that Jim Lane and his men had camped close to 
our house. I don't suppose that Mr. L. L. Hull knows 
that an ''army with banners" once had their white tents 
spread over the ground where those nice tenant houses 
of his are, with their pretty lawns, for that happened 
long before he came to Osbaloosa. 



REMINISCENCES ^U)3 



CHAPTER XXI. 

I think it was in 3850 that two families came and lo- 
cated in Oskaloosa who were originally from Tennessee, 
but lived for a while before coming" to Oskaloosa on 
farms a few miles east of Pella. Mr. John Shoemake 
and Mr. Wesley Moreland were brothers-in-law. Both 
men were full of business and did much to improve the 
town. At one time Mr. Moreland was in partnership 
with Mr. A. G. Phillips in a store of general merchandise. 
Their store was at the southwest corner of the public 
square, on the ground where Boyer's clothing store now 
is. Property and business changed hands very frequent- 
ly about that time. In 1852 Mr. Moreland and Mr. Shoe- 
make each built for themselves what at that time was 
thought to be very line brick residences, on Second Ave- 
nue West. They are respectable residences to-day. The 
Shoemake house is owned and occupied by Mr. Henry 
Stafford, and the Moreland house is owned by Mrs. 
Mariah Rhinehart. 

Mrs. Moreland was a sister of John Shoemake, and 
also of M. L. Shoemake, who came from Tennessee when 



304 MAHASKA COUNTY 

a boy, and has been a resident of Oskaloosa more than 
forty years. He owns an elegant home, and his wife is 
said to be one of the finest housekeepers in this region. 
Mr, John Shoemake built the house which has been the 
Frankel home for many years. John Shoemake died of 
consumption more than thirty years ago, leaving a wife 
and two daughters, Virginia and Pony. 

Mr. Moreland was at one t'me treasurer-recorder of 
Mahaska County. He was prosperous in business and 
owned many valuable pieces of property, but reverses 
came to liim in the financial crash of 1857. When the 
war came he enlisted in the army; he died in St. Louis 
from sickness contracted in the service of his country, 
leaving his wife in straightened circumstances, with five 
children, none of them grown. 

Mrs. Moreland was brave, honest, honorable and in- 
dustrious. Through great tribulation she educated her 
children. They were all bright and capable. John Wes- 
ley, who looks just like his father, is a capable news- 
paper man, and Mollie, now Mrs. Walter Campbell, is 
one of the brightest women in Oskaloosa. Her husband, 
Mr. Walter Campbell, is one of the nicest young business 
men to be found anywhere. Mrs. Moreland has always 
had many friends, and her children idolize lier. 

Among many other valuable places owned by More- 
land and Shoemake, was a large and valuable feirm in 
Harrison township, known as the ''Rhinehart farm'' sit- 
uated in sections 8 and 9, about five miles a little south- 
east of Oskaloosa. That claim was located in 1843 by Mr. 
Thomas Brooks. Mr. Brooks soon sold the claim to Louis 
Rhinehart, from Adams C(^unty, Illinois. Mr. Rhinehart 



REMINISCENCES. 305 

had a numerous family (3f sons and daughters, all worthy, 
respectable and thrifty people. In 1854 Mr. Rhinehart 
sold his farm to Judg"e Rhinehart, from Ohio, and went 
to Oregon. Judge Rhinehart and the other Rhineharts 
were not related. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Rhinehart were 
the parents of thirteen children, who all went to Oregon 
with them except one daughter, Mrs. Thomas Ratlilf, 
who remained in Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Ratliff are 
sleeping in Forest Cemetery. They died in Harrison 
township, where theyhad lived for many years, respected 
by all their neighbors. Their eldest daughter, Ellen, 
married Valentine Brubaker, who is a successful farmer 
and much respected citizen of Harrison township. Ellen 
died in a year or two after she and Mr. Brubaker were 
married, leaving an infant son, Edward, who has a family 
of his own now, and is said to possess the honesty and 
good farming sense of all the Brubakers, Rhineharts and 
Ratliffs combined, which is saying a good deal for the 
boy. Maggie, another daughter of Thomas Ratliff, mar- 
ried Mr. William Stephenson. She and her husband are 
charming people and have a charming home just south of 
Oskaloosa. Lizzie, another daughter who married Mr. 
Thomas Harper, is a fine looking woman, and is as su- 
perior in character as she is in looks. Thomas Ratlitf 
has two sons, James and John. James lives in Louisiana. 
John is a citizen of Oskaloosa, but is about to emigrate 
with his excellent family to Oregon and make his home 
among his rich Rhinehart relations. 

Mr. Louis Rhinehart died in Oregon fifteen years 
ago; his wife is still living but is away up in the nineties. 
She has seen her great, great-grandchildren. I was told 

20 



306 MAHASKA COUNTY 

recently by one of her grandsons that she had more than 
four hundred descendants and that she had seen seven 
generations of her family, counting her own grandpar- 
ents. All of her thirteen children lived to be married 
and raise families. I never heard an evil report of a sin- 
gle member of that numerous family, Mr. and Mrs. Louis 
Rhinehart lived in Harrison township ten years. All of 
their children lived there. Three daughters and one son 
were married before they went to Oregon. All were 
good, substantial citizens, attended strictly to their own 
business and were thrifty. 

James Rhinehart, a lawyer who came from Ohio 
early in the fifties, purchased Louis Rhinehart's farm, 
lived there a year or two, then moved to Oskaloosa and 
was soon after elected county judge. He was a shrewd 
business man and when he died, some twenty years ago, 
left a considerable estate to his three daughters, Mrs. 
Jane Johnson, Mrs. Minerva McKinley, Mrs. Letitia 
Smith and the heirs of his son. Dr. S. E. Rhinehart. Dr. 
Rhinehart came to Oskaloosa when a young man, was a 
popular physician and a much respected citizen. He mar- 
ried one of Mahaska's handsomest girls. Miss Maria 
Davis. Dr. Rhinehart died of consumption in the prime 
of mature manhood, Mrs. Letitia Smith and her family 
moved to Colorado years ago. Mrs. Johnson (now Mrs. 
Ballinger) and Mrs, McKinley, reside in Oskaloosa, They 
are lovely women, I don't know where a woman can be 
found who deserves the gratitude of her neighbors more 
than Mrs, McKinley. Who of Oskaloosa's noble women 
have ever been so capable and so ready to respond to 
the needs of the sick, sorrowing and dying as Mrs, 



REMINISCENCES. 307 

Minerva McKinleyV Dr. Rhinehart lived on the Rhine- 
hart farm a year or so after his father moved to town. 
In the Summer or early Autumn of 1855, while Dr. Rhine- 
hart was living there, my husband and I drove down 
there one day. We found everything looking lovely. 
Peaches were ripe. I had never seen so many peaches 
going to waste. There were great big peach trees around 
the yard and around the garden and a long row along the 
edge of the apple orchard. The trees were bending over 
with the weight of great velvety peaches, and the ground 
under them was literally covered. Great Shanghai chick- 
ens were walking about under the trees pecking at those 
delicious peaches. They would peck a little on one great, 
red, mellow peach, then leave it and take a bite out of 
another. Mrs. Rhinehart was making peach butter and 
the doctor had gone to town 'with a wagon load of 
peaches. We asked Mrs. Rhinehart to sell us a bushel, 
which she did. We gathered them ourselves and had 
pick and choice. We came away thinking that plenty 
abounded on the Rhinehart farm. About that time Mr. 
Frank Farmer, brother-in-law to Messrs. Moreland and 
Shoemake, came from Tennessee and purchased that 
farm from Judge Rhinehart. Mr. Farmer lived there a 
few months, but became homesick. Moreland and Shoe- 
make took the farm oft' of his hands and let him go back 
to the hills of Tennessee. 

In the Autumn of 1856 my husband bought the Rhine- 
hart farm from these gentlemen. We rented our nice 
home to Mr. A. F. Seeberger and on the 11th of Novem- 
ber, 185(), moved to the Rhinehart farm. That wonderful 
crop of peaches and other evidences of thrift around 



308 MAHASKA COUNTY 

there made us think it a veritable paradise. We traded 
our farm on the border of Oskaloosa in that deal. The 
winter of '55 and '56 was an extremely severe one and all 
those peach trees were killed, root and branch. 

The Winter of '56 and' 57 was a severe one. A deep 
snow lay (m the ground all Winter, and the cold weather 
lasted until away late in the Spring-, On the 7th day of 
May, 1857, the ground was frozen hard. My husband 
sowed wheat about the 17th of May. He hesitated about 
sowing so late in the Spring, but he never raised so good 
a crop of wheat before nor since ; it was simply superb. 
Our folks began planting corn on the 21st of May. The 
plum trees were in blossom. I used to keep a record of 
things of that kind, and have observed that the ground 
is alw^ays right for ]3lanting corn when the plum trees 
were in blossom. While I think of it I want to say that 
the first frost which appeared in the Fall of 1857 was on 
October 16th. I have never known frost to hang back 
like that in Iowa since. 

We knew several families in the Rhinehart neighbor- 
hood before we went there to live. Mr. Wm. Bean and 
family, whose farm joined ours on the south, were excel- 
lent neighbors. They came from Adams County, Illinois, 
in 1843, and lived at first in a wigwam on Skunk River in 
the Indian village of Kishkekosh. They sold their claim 
on Skunk River in '44, and bought Samuel Tibbetts' claim 
in Harrison Township. Mr. and Mrs. Bean, like nearly 
everybody else in the Rhinehart neighborhood, were 
Methodists of the old-fashioned kind; their oldest daugh- 
ter, Emily, married Mr. John M. Loughridge, who after- 
wards became a Methodist minister. Anna, the second 



Reminiscences. 309 

daughter, married the Rev. George Clark, a minister also 
in the Methodist Church. Dr. Samuel Clark and Miss 
Nannie Clark, of Oskaloosa, are their only living- chil- 
dren. Mrs. Anna Bean Clark was a handsome, bright, 
sweet-spirited Christian lady. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bean had two daughters, charming 
girls, when we first went to the Rhinehart neighborhood. 
They were beginning to be called "young ladies" when I 
first became acquainted with them. Jennie married a 
Mr. Lindley, and Armilda married a Mr. Orton. They 
both went to Nebraska long ago. They (the Beans) had 
three sons: James, the oldest, who went to Pike's Peak 
when gold was first discovered there; I think he went in 
'59 or '60. I hear that Thomas, the second son, is chief 
of police in San Francisco, and a grand man. Will, tlie 
youngest, is a fine-looking, intelligent man, and a much- 
respected citizen of Council Bluffs. Thomas and William 
were not much older than my little boys, Orlando and 
Quincy, when we became their neighbors. They went 
to school together in the old log school-house; they 
coasted and hunted rabbits together in Winter, and v/hen 
a little older would .test the speed and mettle of their 
horses when sent out on the prairie of a summer evening 
to bring home the cows. 

Among the first settlers in that region was a family 
by the name of Edwards, who were formerly from New 
Jersey. They came in '43. Mr. Britton Edwards died a 
few years after, leaving a wife, one daughter and two 
grown sons. Sarah Elizabeth, the daughter, married 
John Rhinehart, son of Louis Rhinehart. Thomas Ed- 
wards, one of the sons, married Miss Barbara Rhinehart, 



310 MAHASKA COUNTY 

sister to John. Stephen, the other son, went to Califor- 
nia m '49. He never married and is living in Oregon; a 
rich, retired old bachelor. Mrs. Edwards the mother, 
was related to our family by marriage. She made her 
home with her son, Thomas Edwards, and when he went 
to Oregon in 1854 she went with him. 

While they were living in Harrison Township Mrs. 
Edwards often came to Oskaloosa to visit us. The great- 
er part of her conversation during those visits was about 
a boy who was a member of her son's family, whom she 
called "Pierce Ratliff." Pierce Ratlitt", in her estima- 
tion, was all that could be desired in a boy. He was a 
manly boy. He was an honest, obliging, good-hearted 
boy, never shirked a duty, was respectful to elderly peo- 
ple," was kind to everybody, was bright and witty. In 
fact, he was the life of the household. Mrs. Edwards 
would regale us by the hour in relating the smart and 
nice things which Pierce Ratliff said and did. Thomas 
Edwards sold his farm, and in the Spring of 1854 went 
with his father-in-law and the rest of that numerous fam- 
ily of Rhineharts to Oregon. Thomas Edwards had a 
sale just before leaving, and my husband and I wishing 
to make some purchases at that sale, drove down there. 
Men and boys, women and girls, were there from all over 
the country. I knew some of them, but many were 
strangers. The yard was full, the porch was full, and 
people were all about in the house. The women of the 
family were in the kitchen preparing an elaborate dinner. 
I was in the sitting-room conversing with some ladies 
when a boy came in with two books in his hand which 
looked like school books. He remarked to a gentleman 



REMINtSCENCES. 311 

as he walked to a bureau and put them in a drawer, "I 
am going" to take these with me." The boy attracted my 
attention, though I had no idea who he was. There was 
something- in his voice and manners which led me to think 
he was no ordinary or commonplace boy. He had an 
honest, open, intelligent face, and something in his voice 
and the few words he spoke struck me at once. I was 
interested in the boy and wondered who he could be. 
The boy went out and mingled with the crowd, and I 
went to the kitchen where Mrs. Edwards was, pointed 
the boy out to her and asked her if she knew who that 
boy was. I have not forgotten the pleased look which 
came into her face as she glanced from the boy back to 
me and said, "Why that is Pierce Ratliff, the boy you 
have heard me talk so much about." When Mr. Edwards 
went to Oregon the l)oy Pierce went with him and drove 
an ox team across the plains. 

When we first went to that neighborhood to live we 
had for neighbors a family by the name of Loper, who 
were excellent neighbors. Mrs. Loper was a woman of 
great kindness of heart and full of energy. Mr. and 
Mrs. Loper had several children, among them a boy 
about the age of my Quincy, whom they called Jolm. 
John Loper is Colonel of the 51st Iowa Regiment, now in 
the Philippine Islands. 

M. M. B. Davis, from Maine, owned a fine farm not 
far from ours, where he and his mother lived in a cozy, 
comfortable home. Everything about them was orderly, 
and one could see the evidence of Yankee thrift at a 
glance. Directly after we became his neighbor, Mr. 
Davis was married to Miss Ida Earl, a lovely and culti- 



312 MAHASKA COUNTY 

vated lady from New York. One baby after another 
came to them, until they had four sons and one daughter. 
Ida Augusta, the daughter, is a charming woman and a 
lovely character. There is Will and Harry and John and 
Fred, all nice men. I have known every one of them 
from their infancy, and never heard of one of them doing 
a mean trick in their lives. Mr. Davis provided bounti- 
fully for his family and was one of the tenderest sons, 
husbands and fathers I was ever acquainted with. Mrs. 
Davis possessed much strength of character, though 
her body was frail. Her children, every one of them, 
were models of kindness. They never slacked in loving 
tenderness to that frail little mother, and when she fell 
asleep to wake no more, her four sons laid her tenderly 
to rest in a beautiful spot in Forest Cemetery. I never 
drive by the Davis lot in our city of the dead without 
thinking of the time that I stood by and saw those four 
sons place their mother gently in her last resting-place. 

Mr. Davis came with hTs parents from Maine to Iowa 
in 1848. His father died soon after coming to Iowa. 
His mother lived many years and was one of the lovliest 
old ladies that anybody ever saw. Her home, as long as 
she lived, was with that son and his family, every mem- 
ber of which treated her w^ith the most unfeigned tender- 
ness. Mr. Davis was not only a model of kindness in his 
own family, but w^as an exceedingly kind and obliging 
neighbor. Their home was a charming place to visit. 
Mr. and Mrs. Davis were well informed, were good talk- 
ers. A dinner prepared by Mrs. Davis was a marvel of 
dainty cooking and she honored her guests by serving 
them on rare pieces of old Dutch china brought from 



REMINISCENCES. 313 

Holland by her ancestors. Her mother was a Vanderbilt, 
Ida Augusta, the lovely daug^hter of that house, possesses 
the taste and skill of her excellent lady mother, as well 
as the hospitable and tender ways of her father. 

When we went to the Rhinehart farm in November, 
1856, the country between our place and the little villag^e 
of Fremont, ten miles east, was almost an unbroken ex- 
panse of prairie. If the sun was shining" in the late after- 
noon we could stand on our front porch and see that vil- 
lag"e. There was one house in a grove of cottonwood 
trees some four or five miles away in that direction which 
loomed up in plain view. There, lived a family by the 
name of Haskell— elderly people, with several grown-up 
sons. W. W. Haskell, a lawyer and citizen of Oskaloosa, 
is one of those sons. Mr. and Mrs. Haskell were intelli- 
g"ent Christian people. Mr. Haskell had read and thought 
much; was an entertaining- talker. When I hear his 
granddaughters, Edith and Carrie Haskell, so highly 
spoken of as scholarly girls, I think of that grandfather, 
whose words of wisdom I listened to with delight forty 
years ago. 

That ten mile stretch of prairie which in 185() we 
thought was going to be a free pasture for flocks and 
herds for ages to come, was, in the course of five or six 
years, dotted over with farmhouses, groves and young 
orchards. Great fields of waving grain were to be seen 
where a short time before was a vast, native meadow. 
What great prairie fires we used to see out east, between 
our house and Fremont. There would seem to be a rim 
of fire miles and miles long. People who were called 
smart used to say that prairie would never be settled up; 



314 MAHASKA COUNTY 

it was too flat, and another thing" was, it was too far 
from timber. We used to wonder why Mr. Haskell went 
away out there to live when there was so much land near 
the timber. The Rhinehart farm, the Bean farm, the 
Morrow farm and the Stuart farm each had a background 
of fine timber, with the best of prairie land for farming". 
About a half a mile northwest of our house, and near the 
northwest corner of our land, was the Rhinehart school- 
house - a miserable log" hut — but the only public building" 
of any kind for miles around. There school was taug"ht, 
relig"ious meetings were held, and sometimes the honest 
yoemen of Harrison township met there and cast their 
ballots for township officers. School laws have been 
changed since then, but at one of these elections my hus- 
band was made school director, which office he held for 
two or three years. A young man came to our house 
one day and applied for the school. He was so young" he 
hardly looked to be able to govern a lot of big, rough 
boys. He was only nineteen but had taught one term of 
school successfully. Robert Wesley McBride was his 
name. His father was a soldier in the Mexican war and 
died from the effects of exposure in the same and he was 
making his way as best he could. Mr. Phillips knew his 
family to be very superior people, and the boy Wesley 
looked all right, so Mr. Phillips employed him to teach 
the Rhinehart school in the winter of 1860 and 1861. 
Wesley McBride boarded with us while he was teaching 
that school. He proved to be capable of teaching all that 
he proposed to teach. He was quiet and modest, never 
tried to make a display of his knowledge, but we soon 
discovered that he had read much, was well-informed and 



REMINISCENCES. 315 

exceeding-ly level-headed. He was al tog-ether trustwor- 
thy, and was the very soul of honor. Was not at all in- 
clined to push himself forward but at the same time was 
self-respecting-. He had the manners of a g-entleman 
and the brains of a statesman, or the kind of brains a 
statesman needs. He was not strong physically, but 
when the war of the rebellion broke out, was wild to go 
in the army, but was rejected on account of physical dis- 
ability. But before the war was over he managed some 
way to join the army. I don't know what his position 
was, but he remained until the war was over, then went 
to Washing-ton, D. C, studied law, was admitted to the 
bar, began practicing law in Waterloo, Indiana, and was 
prosperous from the first. Was elected Judg-e, was a 
candidate for Supreme Judg-e and was defeated, but was 
afterward appointed by Governor Hovey to fill a place 
made vacant by the death of one of the Supreme Judg-es. 
Robert Wesley McBride is now a prominent and success- 
ful attorney at law in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. 

One day, after we had lived in the Rhinehart neigh- 
borhood two or three years, Jennie Bean came flying 
over to our house with the news that Pierce Ratliff had 
come back from California and was with his mother and 
brothers, who i-esided in Oskaloosa. In a few days this 
paragon of a boy, whom everybody had a word of praise 
for, came down to visit his old friends. Everybody in 
the neighborhood who had lived there when Pierce went 
to Oregon were his friends and were glad to welcome him 
back. The Bean girls, .Jennie and Armilda, brought him 
over to our house. I remember with what pride Jennie 
Bean introduced him to my husband and myself. We 



31B MAHASKA COUNTY 

had heard so many nice things about Pierce Ratlilf tliat 
we were prepared to like him. A friendship such as only 
happens once or twice in a lifetime immediately sprung 
up between him and our family. He bought a farm in 
the neighborhood, and he and his widowed mother be- 
came our neighbors. Mrs. Ratliff, Pierce's mother, was 
a part of the salt of the earth. She lived up to the gold- 
en rule, and I think she sometimes exceeded it, for she 
would do more kind acts for her neighbors than she ever 
wanted them to do for her. 

Pierce, as I have before stated, went to Oregon when 
a boy, with Mr. Thomas Edwards. He stayed in Oregon 
a year or two, then with some other young fellows went 
to California, packing their provisions and all the rest of 
their worldly goods on mules. I have heard him relate 
in an interesting and amusing manner his adventures on 
that tiresome and uncomfortable journey. They went 
through rain and mud and slush and many other trying 
things on their way to "the land of gold." Pierce was a 
boy of nerve and energy and honesty of purpose. He 
made friends among the miners who washed out gold 
along the creeks in Northern California. Pierce's edu- 
cational advantages had not been great when a boy, his 
book learning being confined to the crude country schools 
of Adams County, Illinois. His mother was left a widow 
with seven children, Pierce being the youngest, and only 
one year old when his father died. Mrs. Ratliff's family 
consisted of four sons and three daughters. The sons 
were Thomas, John, James and Pierce. The daughters 
were Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Sallie. Mary Ann mar- 
ried Mr. Charles Gilmer, of Adams Countj^ Illinois, who 



REMINISCENCES. 317 

was a son of Dr. Gilmer, who was a hig^hly-respected and 
prominent citizen of that county. Elizabeth married Mr. 
Robert Gilmer, a planter from Louisiana, and a relative 
of the doctor's. Sallie^ a handsome young girl, w^ent to 
live in the family of her brother-in-law and sister, near 
Shreevesport, Louisiana, where she married a southern 
gentleman by the name of Nicholson. James, their 
brother, when a young man, also went south and estab- 
lished himself in business in the city of Shreevesport. 
They all lived in ease and luxury until the war of the re- 
bellion wrought havoc with their fortunes, as well as 
with many others who espoused the cause of the confed- 
eracy. 

Mr. Nicholson, Sallie's husband, went into the Con- 
federate army, was severely wounded, and died soon 
after the war was over. After Mr. Nicholson's death 
Sallie came to Iowa with her two lovely children, Mattie 
and Robert, where she made an extended visit with her 
mother and brothers. Mattie and Robert are married 
and have families of their own now. Mrs. Nicholson 
pined for the Sunny South and is now living on a planta- 
tion in Louisiana. 

Thomas Ratlift' and family came to Iowa in an early 
day and when there were none of Mrs. Ratliff's family 
left in their old home in Illinois except herself and her 
boy Pierce, they came too to Harrison township, where I 
first introduced them to the reader. While Pierce was 
in Oregon and California his mother's home was with her 
son Thomas' family. Pierce Ratliff, though a mere boy, 
and possessed of nothing but a healthy body, good sense, 
pluck and an honest heart when he went away, came 



318 MAHASKA COUNTY 

back to his g-ood old mother with several thousand dol- 
lars in bright g^old coin. I think everybody in the neig^h- 
boihood was glad when it was known that Pierce had 
boug"ht a farm and he and his mother were established 
among us as citizens of the Rhinehart neighborhood. 
How clean and comfortable and cozy they lived, Pierce 
and his mother. Pierce was not much beyond boyhood 
when he came home from California. What a jolly, rol- 
licking, witty, g^ood natured boy he was. He had come 
home full of knowledge of things and people and coun- 
tries, and how he used to entertain and amuse us with 
his peculiar style of relating events. It was wisdom in- 
terspersed with wit. I never heard him say a flat thing, 
nor did he ever spoil a joke for his own or relations' sake. 
I have heard him relate his experience, when a boy and 
engaged in the hoop-pole trade, in a manner which would 
convulse a whole room-full. 

Though my husband was a good many years his 
senior, a friendship sprang up l)etween them at first 
which v/as of the kind that lasts. I used to call them 
"John Halifax and Phineas Fletcher." The friendship 
between Pierce Ratliff and our family was more like that 
of Phineas and the Halifaxes than anything I ever knew. 
We came near having everything in common. Pierce 
would have gotten up at the hour of midnight and gone 
through mud and slush and rain, or any other thing, if it 
had been necessary, to relieve any of our family. Any 
member of our family would have done the same for him 
or his mother. That family and ours shared each other's 
joys and sorrows. If Pierce had chosen to come to our 
house every day in the week, and sit at our board, he 



REMINISCENCES. 319 

would have been a welcome guest every time. Pierce 
was not a member of any church organization when he 
came among us, though he was honest and honorable in 
all his dealings and had a tender heart. He was a man 
of peace and treated every one with kindness. By nature 
he was a man of fine feelings, and his regard for the feel- 
ings of others was peculiarly evident. At the same time, 
if unjustly attacked, he was and is to-day capable of the 
most stinging sarcasm. He lacks a great deal of being a 
coward, and stands by what he says. 

The majority of the heads of families in the neigh- 
borhood were members of some church, Methodists most- 
ly. The only place they had to worship, except private 
houses, which were mostly little log cabins, was that 
poor, unsightly, uncomfortable school-house. But poor 
and cold and crude as it was, the Lord blessed his chil- 
dren who assembled there to worship. A few of the 
members were pretty comfortably fixed, but the majority 
were living in poor quarters. They had land, and were 
struggling to get fixed to liv^e, but that was in the earlij 
days. Some of the earliest settlers — the Beans, for in- 
stance, who were thrifty people — had a good home, a fine 
orchard, and many other comforts when such things were 
scarce. 

But I must go back to the old school-house where 
the humble and unpretentious were wont to assemble in 
their plain and shabby attire and worship God without 
any feeling of restraint or embarrassment. I can think 
of a number of them who were full of the Holy Spirit. 
Their plain, unvarnished stories of faith and love to God 
and man ring in my ears even now. Nearly all of them 



320 MAHASKA COUNTY 

have gone to their reward. There was one woman in par- 
ticular, wlio a few months ago, at the age of seventy- 
nine, laid down her burden of poverty, toil and affliction 
and took up her abode in one of the mansions prepared 
for the faithful. That woman was Mrs. Lydia Noe. 
Everybody called her "Aunt Lydia." She possessed 
very little of what are called the good things of this world, 
but was so full of faith and the Holy Spirit she was al- 
ways rejoicing. She used to say to me, "Sister Phillips, 
when I think of my Heavenly home and the joys laid up 
for me there, I get in a hurry to go." I could write a 
whole chapter of "Aunt Lydia's" exhortations, prayers 
and talks in love-feast meetings. She was unlearned in 
what the world calls learning, but she knew how to take 
hold of God's promises and how to cast her burden on 
the Lord. 



REMINISCENCES '.\2\ 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Rhinehart society belonged to the Eddyville 
circuit. The circuit preacher resided in Eddyville. His 
appointments at the Rhinehart school-house were usual- 
ly on every alternate Sunday, but occassionally he would 
hold a series of meetings in the neighborhood. Those 
protracted meetings were usually held in the winter and 
if school was being taught the people would congregate 
in the school-house of evenings, and in the daytime 
would meet at one or another of the small and unpreten- 
tious homes of that neighborhood. 

Rev, Samuel Hestwood was once pastor of the Eddy- 
ville circuit. He came about the time the war of the re- 
bellion broke out. Not long after coming, he held a pro- 
tracted meeting in the Rhinehart neighborhood. He was 
a good man, a good singer and a forceful preacher. The 
older members seemed to "take a new start for the 
Kingdom." A number of the young people became con- 
verted — among them our friend, Pierce Ratliff. What 
joy there was that day in that little, plain congregation, 
when Pierce — jolly, good-hearted Pierce, who was the 

21 



322 MAHASKA COUNTY 

life ()i the neighborhood and a favorite with every body- 
rose np and told, with joy beaming" in his face and tears 
streaming down his cheeks, that God, for Christ's sake 
had forgiven his sins. What a thrill ran through that 
little company of worshipers! Every face beamed with 
joy. I can never forget the glad look on the face of his 
saintly old mother as she went about shaking hands with 
everybody and thanking the Lord for converting her son. 
And Brother Hestwood, how happy he looked when 
Pierce, in giving his testimony, said: ''Mr. Hestwood, 
I thank the Lord for permitting me to hear your preach- 
ing. You convinced me that I ought to be a Christian 
every time I heard you preach." Then he went on to 
say, "Ever since this meeting began I have felt that I 
ought to give my heart to God and lead a new and better 
life. Early this morning I went away down a slough west 
of my house and when I had reached a place where I 
thought nobody but God could hear me, I fell on my 
knees, I wrestled with my convictions, my pride and my 
love of the world. I told God all about it and promised 
then and there if He would for Christ's sake forgive my 
sins, I would serve Him all the days of my life. When I 
arose from my knees I felt that the burden of sin was 
taken from my soul and I was a new creature in Christ 
Jesus." 

The next time that Pierce was at our house after 
that memorable meeting, we looked out and saw Gorrell 
coming up the lane. Pierce got up and walked quickly 
down to meet him. I watched them until they met, when 
Pierce threw his arms around Gorrell's neck and there 
they stood embracing each other, "John and Phineas." 



REMINISCENCES. 323 

I stood in the kitchen door and watched those strong, 
manly men as they came toward the house. Tears of joy 
and sympathy were in my own eyes as I saw the tears 
and look of tenderness in theirs. They both w^ere strong, 
manly men, w^ould scorn to go back on their word, were 
square in their dealings, never took advantage of the 
helpless nor of widows and orphans, even when they 
made no pretentions to being Christians. 

They had been honest and honorable boys, but some- 
thing beyond that had come to them. That something, 
while it made them none the less manly, gave them tiie 
courage to stand up for Christ and accept the Kingdom 
of Heaven as little children. They had a new exper- 
ience, a touch of the Spirit which was in Christ. That 
day when we sat down to dinner. Pierce asked a bless- 
ing. He always had a good, honest face, but after the 
experience I have been telling about, his face fairly 
shone. How well he talked in meeting. He had the gift 
naturally of expressing his thoughts clearly and inter- 
estingly. He never said anything that sounded flat or 
insipid, no matter what his subject was, and especially 
when he would rise up in a religious meeting we all felt 
sure we were going to hear something interesting, in- 
structive and to the point. Many predicted that Pierce 
would be a preacher. In one sense, he was a preacher 
from the time he was converted. Some of the ministers 
and many others, members of the church, used to say to 
him: "Brother Ratliff, you ought to be a minister." 
His reply usually was, "Oh, I couldn't preach, I am not 
good enough, and if I was good enough I am not well 
enough educated.'' He always regretted not having had 



324 MAHASKA COUNTY 

better advantages of educati(jn in his youth, and after he 
came from California and he and his mother settled down 
to living on a farm, the way never seemed to be open for 
him to go to school. He was a prosperous farmer, made 
money and added to his acres. Was liberal in his dona- 
tions to the church and to the poor. 

There was a very poor family living in our neighbor- 
hood. One morning Pierce was driving down the lane. 
There was snow on the ground. The man was over in 
the field gathering corn. Pierce stopped to speak to 
him, and as the man came toward him he observed his 
bare toes sticking out of his ragged shoes. As the poor 
man came toward him smiling, Pierce said, "Why, man, 
aren't your feet nearly frozen?" "I don't mind it much," 
said the man, whereupon Pierce put his hand down in his 
pocket, took out some money and handed it to him, say- 
ing: "Stop gathering that corn and go right straight 
down to Eddyville and get yourself a pair of boots." 
Then Pierce drove on. That is just one of many kind 
acts performed by Pierce Ratliff. He had a kind heart 
and a good mind, much as he talked about his want of 
book learning. He lacked a good deal of being ignorant. 
Being a close observ^er of men and things, he was quite 
well informed. I used to think he understood what he 
read the best of anybody I ever knew who made so little 
pretensions to being learned. But whether he be called 
learned or unlearned, he possessed the instincts of a gen- 
tleman, and as he has gone along life's journey he has 
managed to find out a great deal about some things and 
a little about a great many things. 

Pierce stuck to the faith, led class meetings and 



REMINISCENCES. 325 

prayer meeting's, and was never absent from meeting- 
unless unavoidably detained. He and his good old saint- 
ly mother continued to live together on his farm until 
Pierce began to be called an old bachelor. But finally 
he became acquainted with, courted and married a hand- 
some, accomplished young lady. Miss Addie F. Thomas. 
He and his young wife idolized each other. He made for 
her a nice home, furnished with many comforts. Pierce 
had been a good son, a good brother, a good friend, and 
true to that noble manliness born in him, was a devoted 
husband. How often they used to come flying into our 
house to see Gorrell and me, with joy beaming all over 
their faces. But that dream of happiness was cut short 
by death. Addie, the happy young wife, was suddenly 
snatched away by that uncompromising reaper, who paid 
no attention to the breaking- heart of the stricken hus- 
band nor the pitiful wailing of his little motherless baby. 
How vividly that terrible day is stamped on my memory ! 
A large mirror fell from the wall and' was shivered into a 
thousand pieces. I had scarcely gotten the glass swept 
up when there was a ring at my door. I went to the 
door and there stood a boy with a telegram. I tore it 
open and read: 

"Come at Once. Addie is Very Sick. 

"Pierce." 

I immediately began preparing- to goto them, hoping- 
all the time that Pierce in his fright had thought things 
more serious than they really were. But as I was hur- 
rying to the train I met Taylor Kalbach coming from 
there. I knew from the look or tenderness in his face 
that something terrible had happened. We halted a mo- 



326 MAHASKA COUNTY 

ment, and all that he said was: "She is dead!" Then we 
hurried on. 

How my heart ached for Pierce and how I dreaded 
to meet him. I found him walking the floor, wringing 
his hands in the agony of despair. There Addie lay, 
cold and white and still. Kind friends had done all that 
it was possible to do. Neither the agonizing prayers of 
the heart-broken liusband, the skill of physicians, nor 
the sympathy and efforts of friends could keep back that 
terrible messenger. The young life had gone out; there 
Addie lay, so white and so still, dressed as I had seen 
her thirteen months before, when she and Pierce stood 
hand in hand while Brother Pillsbury pronounced them 
husband and wife. Addie was an only child, idolized by 
her parents. I went into another room, where I found 
her father sitting in silent, motionless, tearless grief. 
Her mother, who happened at that time to be many miles 
away, was notified by telegram of her daughter's serious 
illness. She flew^ as fast as railroad trains could carry 
her, but when she arrived that beloved daughter was 
cold and still. 

I can never forget the agonizing grief of that mother. 
These terrible sorrows come — we can't tell why. Per- 
haps it will all be revealed to us some time. Addie was 
laid to rest in Forest Cemetery, and in a few months a 
little grave was made close to hers. Pierce had "moved 
heaven and earth" in trying to keep their baby boy, but 
it was not to be. The Lord took him. On that self -same 
day that baby's aged and saintly grandmother, Margaret 
Wade Ratlilf , entered into the rest prepared for the just. 
I love to think of the life of that honest, unpretentious, 



REMINISCENCES. 327 

unselfish Christian woman. I sometimes tell Pierce that 
he ougiit to thank the Lord for his having- sprung- from 
such an honorable and Christian stock. I was intimately 
acquainted with that saintly woman for a quarter of a 
century, and in all those years I never knew her to do an 
act or sciy a word which I thoug-ht was sinful. She was 
not a long-faced, canting Christian, who was always see- 
ing- something" in others to condemn, but was charitable, 
cheerful, hospitable, and was not g-iven to seeing- faults 
in others. She was exceedingly obliging to her neigh- 
bors, without seeming to think she had done anything' 
out of the ordinary, or usual. The man who was born of 
a woman with a character like hers, and had the example 
of a life like hers all through his boyhood and early man- 
hood, surely has something to be grateful for. 

Pierce chose one of the beautiful spots in Forest 
Cemetery wherein to lay his precious dead. There lie 
his young wife, his baby and his mother. By the 
mother's side lies all that is mortal of her son John, who 
many years ago met a sudden and tragic death by being 
thrown from a horse. John was as charming and at- 
tractive in his manners as his brother Pierce. A gray 
granite monument is there to tell who are the occupants 
of that lovely, shady, grassy spot. All the Summer 
through the grass is kept shorn and flowers bloom on the 
graves. 

Pierce has endured many sore trials and fiery or 
deals, but with it all has steadfastly clung to his faith in 
Christ. He has been an active business man, has made 
much money, and might have been wealthy if his heart 
had been less tender and less inclined to respond to the 



328 MAHASKA COUNTY 

calls of Christian work and the needy poor. Some years 
ago he was engaged as a traveling salesman for a large 
agricultural implement house in Minneapolis, which busi- 
ness kept him on the road and in hotels, where he was 
continually coming in contact with infidels, agnostics and 
scoffers at the religion of Jesus Christ, and at the teach- 
ing of the Bible. I used to wonder if he would withstand 
the scoff's and jeers, criticisms and cunning sophistry a 
Christian is compelled to hear on railroad trains, in the 
offices of hotels, and the many circumstances surrounding 
a man engaged as a traveling salesman, and come out of 
it all with his faith unshaken. I must confess I some- 
times felt afraid he would not. But I might have "given 
to the winds my fears," for God gave him grace to stand 
up for Christ and defend the faith whenever and where - 
ever he heard it defamed. Instead of growing weaker 
in the faith he came out stronger. When in the city he 
worked in missions, talked on the street, and whenever 
an opportunity was presented, held up Christ and salva- 
tion to the ungodly. He has given much to foreign mis- 
sions, and is now conducting a mission in Sioux City, 
where he resides and is in business. 

Pierce Ratliff is a self-made man, if any man can 
truly be called self-made. He started out when a boy, 
withftut money or influential friends; he worked for 
twenty-five cents a day. The time came when he could 
command fifteen hundred dollars a year as a traveling 
salesman. Pierce Ratliff has shown himself a hero in 
more than one instance and on more than one occasion. 
I was talking with a gentleman not long ago who crossed 
the plains in 1854 in the same train in which Pierce Rat- 



REMINISCENCES. 329 

liff went and drove an ox team for Thomas Edwards. 
He eng-ag-ed to drive that team throug-h, and do anything- 
else which mig^ht come up and need doing- in the way of 
guarding their teams and other animals which they were 
driving through to Oregon. The gentleman remarked 
during our talk that Pierce, though a mere boy, never 
shirked a duty no matter how irksome or how dangerous. 
The gentleman went on to say: "Pierce never seemed to 
be afraid to undertake anything which was necessary to 
be done. When we came to Green River we found the 
stream deep and swift and cold. The teams and wagons 
were taken across in a ferry-boat, and the loose cattle 
were made to swim the stream. It was necessary for 
some one to mount a horse and keep in the stream to 
make the cattle take and keep the proper direction. It 
looked like taking a great risk; the rest hesitated, but 
Pierce mounted a horse and lunged right in. He soon 
found himself in great peril. The river swift and cold, 
the cattle frightened and swimming in every direction, 
and he and his horse in the midst and in great peril. He 
found himself and horse being carried down that raging 
torrent in spite of all he could do. He slid off the 
horse, thinking he would be in less danger, but that 
raging, seething torrent carried him on and on. He was 
in the very jaws of death, but was lighting for life with 
all the nerve and muscle he possessed. When almost 
exhausted and ready to give it up, he struck a bar, and 
with almost superhuman strength threw himself on that 
bar more dead than alive; the company were wrought up 
to the highest pitch; they ran down and along the bank, 
some, shouting to give him courage and others trying to 



330 MAHASKA COUNTY 

throw him ropes, but with it all he had to save himself." 
I have heard Pierce i:elate that terrible experience. 
Every act of his life passed before his mind like a pano- 
rama and when he struck that bar he put forth every 
particle of strength in his body. Pierce made a terrible 
struggle for his life in Green river, but would risk his 
life for what some would consider a trifling matter. 
When on that adventurous journey they had to be con- 
tinually on the watch for Indians after they crossed the 
Missouri river. Indians would steal their cattle and 
horses if they had a chance. In spite of all their watch- 
fulness, one morning a lot of their stock was gone. Part 
of their team was gone, which was a calamity indeed. 
So some of them must follow those Indians and, if pos- 
sible, recover their oxen. Some of the men volunteered 
to undertake that perilous adventure. Pierce Ratliff 
among the rest. They mounted their horses and struck 
out. A little colt belonging to the herd which they were 
taking, or trying to take to Oregon, followed, as its 
mother had been pressed into the service. 

They found the trail over which the cattle had been 
driven by the Indians, followed it up, and after going, as 
they supposed, some eight or ten miles, discovered some 
of their cattle grazing on the prairie. Near by was a 
ravine lined with willows where they had good reason to 
suppose the Indians who had driven off their stock were 
in hiding. Some of the men got around the cattle in 
sight and started them toward the camp. Others skir- 
mished around among the willows (the little colt among 
the rest) hoping to find the balance of their property, all 
the time in mortal fear of being picked off by those 



REMINISCENCES. 331 

treacherous Indians. Those who had gone on called 
back to them to come on and let the rest go. They 
started to join the others, but as they were leaving that 
dangerous ground a pitiful wail was heard. The poor 
little colt had become entangled in the willows, and just 
under a bank some three or four feet high, and was making 
desperate efforts to climb the bank. Pierce was one of 
those who had been venturing among the willows. He 
felt, as well as the rest, that they were in danger, but 
the pitiful cries of that poor little colt touched his heart. 
He turned back, sprang off his horse, seized the colt by 
the head and drew it up the bank. It scampered off to 
overtake the others and Pierce mounted his horse and 
moved off on short notice too. When he joined the others 
he was told by some of them that he was the biggest 
fool they ever saw to take the chance of being shot and 
scalped by an Indian to save a colt that wasn't worth ten 
dollars. Pierce's reply was, "I may be a fool, but I 
couldn't go off and leave anything begging so pitifully 
for help as that colt was. " ' 



332 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Very few people lived their lives out on the claims 
they made on the first of May, 1843. But now and then 
an aged man or woman may be found living- on the iden- 
tical spot where their first cabin was built in that long- 
ago time. There was Harry Brewer, who came with sev- 
eral others (all of whose names I have forg^otten except 
Ephriam Munsel.) Mr. Brewer, Mr. Munsel and two or 
three others, located claims close tog"ether, on the 
g^rounds and in the neighborhood where the little town of 
Givin now stands. 

Little did they know or think or care anything about 
the rich veins of coal underlying the whole of that beau- 
tiful farming land. All they thought of was getting their 
land in condition to raise something to eat, and a cabin 
to shelter them. They knew that coal was all about 
there, they could see it cropping out of the banks along 
the Muchakinock and its little tributaries, but what did 
they want with coal? They had no use for the black, 
foul smelling stutf. Who ever dreamed then that a time 
would come when tliat beautiful scenery would be 



REMINISCENCES. 333 

disfi<^ured with great, ugly coal shafts and immense piles 
and ridges of unsightly, black, smoking slack, A black- 
smith shop was a necessity wherever a little settlement 
was made. Somebody would dig into a hillside and get 
enough to supply them. That was about all the use peo- 
ple here had for coal in '43 and '44. There was plenty 
of wood along the rivers to supply the wants of the early 
settlers. We knew very little about coal at first. .Where 
I came from blacksmith shops used charcoal. The only 
coal I ever saw before coming to Iowa was a piece about 
the size of a hen's egg", brought by a young man who had 
been to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, attending school. Said piece 
of coal was placed as a curio on his father's mantel shelf 
and shown to the neighbors when they came in, and its 
use explained. Blacksmiths had to use coal and black- 
smiths were a necessity— people had to get their horses 
shod and their big prairie plows sharpened and their iron 
wedges sharpened, and if they broke the shovel or tongs 
in putting on a big backlog or forestick, it took a black- 
smith to mend them. 

Besides the Brewers and Munsells, there were the 
Harper brothers, John, William, Jacob and Archer, Mr. 
James Bowen, Mr. Andrew Baughman, the Olneys and 
many others, all in that region and all owning tracts of 
land, rich and productiv^e. Corn, wheat, oats, clover and 
timothy grew luxuriantly on all these lands. But before 
many years they began to discover that there was a mine 
of wealth deep down under their fields and orchards and 
under everything else around there. There soon began 
to be a demand for coal, in a small way. When that big 
prairie toward Fremont began to be settled up, the pec- 



334 MAHASKA COUNTY 

pie used coal. They found it cheaper than wood and 
easier to obtain. Those people out there used to haul 
from Bowen's bank, which was said to turn out the best 
coal in that reg"ion. 

In course of time a railroad was built from Keokuk 
to Des Moines; then the Iowa Central, both roads run- 
ning through that neighborhood I have mentioned. A 
railroad company bought nearly all the farms around 
there, paying what seemed then to be fabulous prices for 
the same. Those mines of coal were opened up on a 
large scale, managed by two brothers, W. A. and H. W. 
McNeill — big-souled, brainy business men. The mining 
town of Muchakinock sprang up. Hundreds of men were 
soon working under the ground. Their houses soon 
lined the creek and dotted the hills. Instead of a wagon 
load being hauled away from there occasionally, thous- 
ands of tons were shipped out daily. 

The McNeills were the kind of men to make business 
go. They have not only done much toward developing 
the vast coal fields of Mahaska County, but have built 
handsome residences and substantial business houses in 
Oskaloosa. Our people are indebted to the McNeills for 
much of our town and county's prosperity. Colonel Mc- 
Neill, a brother, came later. He, too, is a fine business 
man. He owns and occupies one of the handsome homes 
in Oskaloosa. H. W. McNeill built one of the most ele- 
gant and expensive suburban homes anywhere in this 
part of Iowa. Oskaloosa people are proud of "Park 
Place," and take pleasure in driving their visitors 
through its winding ways, where are to be seen neatly- 
shorn hedges, velvety grass plats, pond, fountain, rose 



REMINISCENC ES. 335 

garden, vines, ferns and flowers, besides trees great atid 
small. Park Place is an ideal and a charming home. 

The McNeill brothers have made much money in an 
honorable business way, are very liberal, and make mag- 
nificent presents to their relatives, no matter how re- 
mote. They are not only generous with their owm kin, 
but give bountifully to hundreds and thousands of needy 
poor. Besides many other gifts, they used to donate a 
turkey to each miner's family in their employ for their 
Christmas dinner. 

When the coal companies offered the people about 
Givin and Muchakinock a hundred dollars an acre for their 
land they nearly all sold out. I can't think of any who 
kept their farms and old homesteads except Wm. Harper 
and Harry Brewer. Harry Brewer died several years 
ago, but Mrs. Brewer, the wife of his youth, is living on 
the spot where their claim cabin stood in 1843. Mrs. 
Brewer is well preserved, retains her mental faculties 
perfectly, has a very clear recollection of the early times 
and can relate scenes and events of that long ago time in 
a clear and interesting manner. She tells about the 
cabin in which they lived the first winter having no win- 
dow; when she sewed on cold winter days she had to sit 
almost in the fireplace, where she could thread her needle 
by the light which came down the chimney. Some of 
Mrs. Brewer's sons are successful business men in Oska- 
loosa and have good substantial homes. Their sister 
Emily, who married a Mr. Grew, was a lovely girl and is 
a noble and lovely woman. 

Farmers who did not sell out and out to the coal 
companies have found a market for their products in the 



336 MAHASKA COUNTY 

mining" towns which are to be seen in every direction 
from Oskaloosa. Great fields of waving grain, orchards 
and meadows flourish on the ground beneath which are 
thousands of men digg"ing" and hauling out that valuable 
coal. Long trains of cars loaded with that useful com- 
modity are sent east, west, north and south. Railways 
are run by it, and the dwellers on the vast woodless 
plains of Northwestern Iowa and the Dakotas are 
warmed by fires made of coal from Mahaska County. 
When we come to think of it, Mahaska County has many 
things which are considered essential in making up the 
necessaries and comforts of a home. Her natural re- 
sources are numerous, her soil deep and rich, producing 
immense crops of grains, grasses, vegetables and fruits. 

Great veins or strata of coal underlie all this fine 
farming land. Both the Des Moines and Skunk rivers 
run diagonally through the county. They, with their 
numerous tributaries and many fine springs, make it a 
well watered county: and besides that, one can have a 
well almost anywhere by digging. In the bluffs along 
our rivers and creeks limestone and sandstone abound, 
suitable for building purposes. There is an abundance 
of clay suitable for making ordinary brick, tiling and 
pottery, and an unlimited amount of the kind of which 
paving brick is made. If anybody wants to see paving 
brick that will stand almost anything on earth, let them 
come to Oskaloosa. I can speak for the paving in front 
of my house, which is on South Market Street, a street 
used as much for heavy hauling and fast driving as any 
street in the city. I have seen sparks fly from the hoofs 
of horses as they have gone tearing along on this 



REMINISCENCES. 337 

pavement, but have never seen a brick misplaced nor 
even a corner chipped off, though it has been down over 
four years. I seem to be doing- a little unintentional ad- 
vertising- for the people who make the brick and those 
who do the paving. But let it g"o. If I knew who they 
were I mig^ht mention their names. Come to think of it, 
I do know one man who is engaged in making paving 
brick just at the edge of town. That man is Mr. Will 
Hawkins, a highly respected citizen of Oskaloosa, whose 
excellent wife is a daughter of Isaac Kalbach and sister 
of the Kalbach men who are counted among the honor- 
able business men — the bone and sinew of Oskaloosa's 
citizens. 

Will Hawkins is a descendant of Quaker ancestors of 
whom no one need be ashamed. His parents, Isaac and 
Ruth Hawkins, came to Oskaloosa from Ohio many years 
ago when Will was a little boy. His brother, Seth Hawk- 
ins, is, and has been from young manhood up, a much re- 
spected member of society. These Hawkins men have 
five sisters, Mrs. George Terrell, Mrs. Joseph Arnold, 
Mrs. Charles Johnson, Mrs. Anna Barton and Miss Lou 
Hawkins, every one superior and cultured women. Isaac 
Hawkins, their father, died soon after coming to Oska- 
loosa, but Ruth, his gentle, sweet-spirited wife, survived 
him many years. But now she too is sleeping in the si- 
lent city of the dead. Abram and Jane Hawkins, near 
relatives of the other Hawkins family, came and settled 
in Oskaloosa more than thirty years ago. A more serene 
and charming old couple it was never my pleasure to 
meet. Their genial bow and pleasant smile "haunts me 
still" as I, on summer evenings, drive by their once 



338 MAHASKA COUNTY 

charming" home. I miss the bow of friendly recognition 
and Ivincdy smile which used to greet me as I was wont to 
see that beloved and saintly couple sitting on their ve- 
randa embowered in vines and flowers. A holy peace 
seemed to rest on those placid faces, though they had 
known sorrows They had seen their manly sons and 
sparkling daughters, while in the bloom of young man- 
hood and young womanhood, fall asleep, to wake no 
more. Uncle Abram and Aunt Jane, as everybody called 
them, endured their bereavement with Christian resig- 
nation. A peace the world knew not of was theirs. 
Now they lie side by side in Forest Cemetery. A gray 
granite stone marks the spot where among their sons and 
daughters they are sleeping their long, last sleep. Two 
sons survive them, William and Eli Hawkins, who are 
prominent business men in Oskaloosa. 

If I had led anyone to suppose that I was going to 
tell a ■ connected story or relate events in the order in 
which they occurred, I would feel like apologizing for 
flying from one subject to another having so little bear- 
ing on each other. But I find if I tell the things I want 
to tell, I must tell them just when I happen to think 
of them. 

I must go back to Harrison township where we lived 
on the Rhinehart farm from the 11th of November, 1856, 
to November 9th, 1868. Many things happened during 
those twelve years. The great financial crash of 1857, 
which made times so hard, and money so hard to obtain 
that some families came near suffering for the bare nec- 
essaries of life; some could scarcely get corn bread. 
There came nearer being a famine than anything that 



REMINISCENCES. 339 

ever happened to Iowa. Corn a dollar a bushel and no 
money. In the summer of 1858 there was so much rain 
the crops were ruined. The roads were almost impass- 
able. The rivers and creeks overflowed their bottom- 
lands. The town of Eddyville was innundated, or a g^ood 
portion of it was. The Des Moines river bridg'e, the 
pride of the town, w^as partially carried off by the flood. 
If there was another bridg^e spanning the Des Moines 
river at that time, I don't know where it was. When the 
river was too hig^h to ford, it was crossed in ferry boats. 

Mr. William Fredrick and family lived about three 
miles south of us. They had come from Ohio in 1844. 
Mr. Fredrick was called a rich man. He bougdit a large 
tract of land; I think he was said to own nine hundred 
acres all in one body. He kept a large flock of sheep. 
The first dandelions I ever saw in Mahaska County grew 
on the common where Mr. Fredrick pastured his sheep. 
It was said that the seed was brought from Ohio in the 
wool on the backs of those sheep. I remember how de- 
lighted I was to see those yellow blossoms, reminding me 
of my childhood days. Mr. Fredrick raised immense 
crops of the biggest and yellowest corn I ever saw. He 
brought the seed from Ohio. In a year or two every far- 
mer around had that kind of corn. It was known as the 
Fredrick corn all over the country. Mr. Fredrick was a 
very peculiar man. If he didn't like people he was not 
slow in letting them know it. At the same time he was 
generous to those he liked, especially to the worthy 
poor. He happened to have a large amount of corn on 
hand when corn was selling at a dollar a bushel, but 
when the poor went to him to buy for bread or seed he 



340 MAHASKA COUNTY 

would only take twenty-five cents. Mrs. Fredrick was a 
lady of refined tastes; was a lover of flowers. When rare 
shrubs, roses and other flowers were almost unknown in 
this new country, she had a garden full, brought from 
her old home in Ohio. The first time I went to see her, 
which was in the Spring of '57, she had my buggy filled 
with slips from those choice plants. Mrs. Fredrick died 
in the Fall of '57. 

When the Fredricks came to Iowa they had two sons, 
young men, George and William, and three daughters, 
Mrs. Dr. C. G. Owen, Miss Clementina Fredrick, who 
afterward married Mr. Sidney Smith, and Miss Cassie 
Fredrick. George and William both died in early man- 
hood. Mrs. Electa Owen died a few years later in Oska- 
loosa. Mrs. Sidney Smith and Miss Cassie are all that 
are left of that family. A few years after Mrs. Fredrick 
died, Mr. Fredrick married Mrs. Reigart, a superior 
lady. Mrs. Reigart had two charming daughters, Miss 
Kate and Miss Vena Reigart. I remember well what a 
sensation the advent of these handsome and accomplished 
girls created among the young men of our neighborhood. 
But none of them succeeded in winning either of them. 
Kate married somebody and went to Chicago to live. 
Vinnie is the wife of Colonel Hammond, a prominent 
banker and an esteemed citizen of Oskaloosa, and has 
bright and accomplished daughters of her own. The 
second Mrs. Fredrick preceded her husband to the other 
shore. Mr. Fredrick lived to a great age, away up in 
the nineties. He died while on a visit to his daughter, 
Mrs. Smith, in Kansas. That terrible conflict, the war 
of the rebellion, began and ended while we were citizens 



REMINISCENCES. 341 

of Harrison township. We were still feeling- the pres- 
sure of the crash of '57 when that awful war broke out. 
Money was still scarce, dry goods and groceries were 
high, and when the war was really upon us, things were 
higher. 

People who had been thought well to do wore shab- 
by, patched and threadbare clothes. Coit'ee, tea and 
sugar sold at enormous prices. Nearly everybody re- 
sorted to some kind of substitute for coffee. We got 
along pretty well on coffee made of parched rye. But 
for sugar and molasses there was no substitute until the 
Lord sent us the sorghum. Sorghum was never known 
in this country until about the time the war began. At 
first, no one here knew how to make a very good article 
of sorghum molasses, but they soon learned t(^ make 
what we thought a very fair syrup. Esquire Sam Vance 
became an expert on that necessary commodity. I re- 
member how proud I was when two barrels of that sac- 
charine product were brought and unloaded at my door: 
When a thing which is essential to the living of His 
children fails, the Lord sends something to supply that 
need. 

When the Nantucket and New Bedford whale fishers 
could no longer supply lighting and lubricating oil to 
answer the demands of this country with its steadily in- 
creasing population and inventions, the God and Father 
of us all ]iermitted his children to discover deep down in 
the earth great reservoirs of petroleum and stores of gas. 
When that terrible conflict between the north and the 
south came, and almost shut off the supply of sugar and 
molasses which we were wont to receive from our south- 



342 MAHASKA COUNTY 

ern neighbors, so cheap and so plentifully, the same kind 
Providence sent us the sorghum. It was surprising how 
soon the people learned to make a fine quality of molas- 
ses, and how pleased and satisfied we were with our jars 
of crab-apple sauce, plum butter and blackberry jam 
made with sorghum molasses. Esquire Vance was sup- 
posed to be the champion sorghum-maker in that region, 
but there were others who were not slow in the business. 
''Uncle Jake" Noe, for instance, a neighbor of ours, car- 
ried on the business to a considerable extent. Uncle 
Jake had a sorghum-mill of the regulation sort, propelled 
by a horse of uncertain age which they called "Colonel." 
Colonel in early life had been afflicted with a disease 
known as "big head." Though he had recovered from 
that malady, his head was still out of proportion to the 
rest of his body. Colonel would not have been called 
fleet, nor symmetrical, nor spirited, yet if a boy kept at 
his heels with a cane stalk and gave him a lick occasion- 
ally he would keep that sorghum mill going pretty stead- 
ily from morning till night. 

Uncle Jake was kind-hearted and liberal and patient. 
He permitted all the boys around to congregate at his 
sorghum factory of evenings, and with his own boys have 
all the fun they chose to have, which is saying a good deal. 
There were my own boys, the Bean boys, and the Barber 
boys, every one of them bubbling over with fun. Uncle 
Jake supervised the boiling himself, and when he would 
have an installment of molasses to dip out he would say: 
"Now, boys, git your paddles ready, and as soon as I git 
the batch dipped out you kin jist pitch in and scrape the 
pan," whereat a general licking of paddles and smart 



REMINISCENCES. 343 

remarks would begin. The Noe boys were noted for a 
dry wit peculiarly their own. That sorghum making 
gave to our children a pleasure something like their par- 
ents experienced when children, as they congregated at 
the sugar camps in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The 
Noes came from Indiana, the region where Edward 
Eggleston found the material for his story of "The 
Hoosier School-master." I didn't live far from there 
myself, and can testify that Edward Eggleston and James 
Whitcomb Riley know what they are talking about. 

More than three score years have come and gone 
since I, with other happy children, played 'neath the 
shade of big beech and sugar trees not far from the little 
town of Greenfield. "Long afore we knowed who Santa 
Glaus wuz" we waded in gravelly- bedded creeks, peeled 
great flakes of moss from logs which had been lying for 
generations undisturbed, until we stripped them of their 
mossy coats to make carpets for our play-houses and 
beds for our dolls. Little girls of Mahaska have many 
beautiful things never dreamed of when I was a child, 
but they have no such moss as we had. 



344 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The war of the rebellion to our young school boys 
and g'irla seems as vague and far away as the war of the 
rev^olution did to me when I was a school girl. I have 
seen many old people in my childhood, and can remember 
them well, who had lived all through that war. My own 
grandmother lived near and heard the firing at the battle 
of Guilford Court-house in North Carolina. My people 
•were Quakers and didn't do much fighting, though they 
did a good deal of nursing among the sick and wounded 
soldiers. My great grandfather and my great great 
grandfather lived near that battle ground, and their 
houses were made hospitals for the wounded American 
soldiers. William Coffin, my great great grandfather, 
married Priscilla Paddock, daughter of a Nantucket 
whale fisher. The Coffins, her descendants, were proud 
of the Paddock blood. Many daughters among them 
have borne the name of Priscilla in honor of that excel- 
lent lady. I wonder if Priscilla Coffin Prine has ever 
been told that she is a lineal descendant of the much- 
esteemed Priscilla Paddock Coffin. Those old survivors 



REMINISCENCES. 345 

of the revolution were rich in folk lore, and used to re- 
late to us children stories of pirates and tories and witch- 
es until we were afraid to go to bed in the dark. 

When another generation appears on the scene the 
survivors of the civil war will be as few and far between 
as the old revolutionary people were in my youth. That 
terrible war among our own people is fresh in the minds 
of many of us yet, though some of our brilliant young 
men and women were born long since that awful conflict 
ended. Even that brilliant young senator, Beveridge, 
began life since that war. I read the charming speech 
which he delivered in the United States Senate the other 
day, and now I am prouder than ever of my native state. 

I am not quite done with Harrison Township and the 
things which happened there between 1856 and 1869. 
The war and many things attending it loom up before my 
mental vision. That war wonderfully transformed things. 
Our nerves were strung up to the greatest tension week 
in and week out. Sluggish people became energetic; 
stingy people became liberal. Nearly all of our neigh- 
bors were loyal — a copperhead stood no show around 
there. I took it upon myself to propose forming a Sol- 
diers' Aid Society among the women and girls of the 
neighborhood. Nearly all seemed anxious to go into it, 
and willing to do what they could. A meeting was ap- 
pointed at the residence of Mr. Wm. Bean for the pur- 
pose of organizing said society. We met, were organ- 
ized, your humble servant was chosen president, Mrs. 
Mary A. Ratliff vice president. Miss Eliza Stuart secre- 
tary, and Mrs. Z. Loper treasurer. It is no wonder that 
Col. John Loper is a brave soldier and a man amongst 



346 MAHASKA COUNTY 

men; his mother was "a host within herself." Our soci- 
ety met at one or another of the houses in the neighbor- 
hood one afternoon in each week. I look back to that 
time and wonder at the unselfishness practiced by all of 
us. Times had been hard, we had practiced economy, 
our wardrobes and household linen had ran low, but loy- 
alty and anxiety about the sick and wounded soldiers was 
so great any of us would have given the last sheet or 
table cloth if by so doing any suffering soldier would 
have been made more comfortable. We worked faith- 
fully, made bandages, lint, pillows and hospital garments. 
We packed those articles in great boxes, in the center of 
which we placed many things which we hoped would 
tempt the appetite of our poor, sick soldiers. In one of 
those boxes I placed a can containing twelve dozen nice, 
fresh eggs, packed in bran. Those eggs were donated 
by Mrs. Andrew Baughman, and many a sick soldier who 
hadn't had an egg for months was made glad. 

When we were ready to make up a box to send away 
some of us would canvass the country all around for do- 
nations and nearly everybody would gladly give what 
they could. I made a circuit like that and was surprised 
at the liberality of people who had little of this world's 
goods. When I got home with my buggy loaded down 
with dainty and useful things, I told my folks I had only 
met one man who wanted to argue. He braced himself 
and began by saying: "The government provides for the 
crippled soldiers and all the good truck you send down 
thar is grabbed up by the officers, whereupon I interrupt - 
him. rude as it was, by remarking that I had no time to 
discuss that question, and drove on. All through that 



REMINISCENCES. 347 

war we worked and prayed, we prayed and worked. 
That was a time when the souls of men and women too 
were tried. How we loved and reverenced the boys in 
blue. No matter what we had thoug^ht of them before, 
when we saw them with Uncle Sam's uniform on they 
were all rig^ht, nothing" was too good for them. The 
railroad and telegraph line had only reached Eddyville 
then and our soldier boys, when starting" to the war, had 
to go there to take the train. One day my husband was 
coming out of Eddyville on horseback. About a half a 
mile this side he met a soldier walking as fast as he 
could and almost out of breath. Mr. Phillips took in the 
situation at once, dismounted, handed the soldier the 
bridle saying: "Jump on this horse and put him through. 
Perhaps you can make the train. Hitch him around 
there somewhere, I'll walk back and get him." The sol- 
dier looked grateful, said "Thank you, " then flew as fast 
as that horse could go. Mr. Phillips walked back to the 
station. The train had gone, the soldier had "made it." 
The horse was "hitched around there somewhere." Mr. 
Phillips never knew who that soldier was. It was 
enough to know he was a soldier. 

When I think of that mighty conflict, I think of it as 
a four years of praying and weeping and working. The 
tears come to my eyes now as I think of our splendid men 
and boys as we used to see them go away so full of nerve 
and pluck and patriotism, to endure all manner of hard- 
ships and die, if need be, for their country and their 
country's flag. The day the 3.3d Iowa left, my husband 
and boys came to Oskaloosa to see them oft'. I was at 
home all day alone. I was thinking all the time of those 



348 MAHASKA COUNTY 

brave and splendid men and boys, their wives, mothers, 
sisters and sweethearts. After a while I heard the band 
away over on the Eddyville road. I knew what it meant. 
All the rest of that day I could do nothing but walk about 
the house and yard and weep and think, "They will never 
all come back; they will never all come back." 

Mr. Gilchrist, Dawson's father, was in that regi- 
ment, a great, broad-shouldered, honest-faced man, just 
in the prime of life and as sound as a dollar. He com- 
mitted his wife and children to the care of the Father 
above, then went down into the jaws of death, a sacrifice 
on the altar of his country like many another whom I 
could mention. Yet I sometimes hear it said that this or 
that veteran of that awful war is drawing a pension un- 
deservedly. How anyone can think a man could leave 
his comfortable home and the dear ones therein, face 
shot and shell, sleep in the mud, wake and find himself 
frozen to the ground, endure hunger, thirst and loath- 
some prisons, and many other things terrible to contem- 
plate, and not be willing that this rich government should 
pay them a good sized pension, is something I cannot un- 
derstand. Who endured that without the effects being 
left in his body? I want every man and boy who enlisted 
in Uncle Sam's army, and is living today, to receive a 
pension. If they escaped the enemy's bullets it was not 
because they did not stand up to be shot at. 

Nearly all the boys in our neighborhood who were 
old enough enlisted in the army. There were the Ellis 
boys, the Ball boys, the Zorns boys, John Phillips, B. 
Noe, Gary Buntin, Jesse Barber, Man and Sam Yeric, 
Hamline Doll and others, all in the Rhinehart neighbor- 



REMINISCENCES. 349 

hood. Jesse Barber and Gary Buntin died serving" their 
country. They both were excellent young men. I re- 
member well when Jesse Barber was converted. He was 
always a g^ood boy, had an honest face, but that night at 
the old log school-house his face fairly shone. He had 
asked the pra3^ers of the church and knelt at the altar. 
After a while he stood up, and looking straight up, ex- 
claimed: "Glory be to God! I see the heavens opening-!" 
I don't think a person in that audience doubted Jesse's 
sincerity. Word came to us that Jesse Barber died be- 
lieving" and rejoicing in Christ. I used to hear it said by 
the pessimistic sort, before the war had beg^un, but was 
threatening", that war was so demoralizing" that a man 
who was once a soldier was never fit for anything" else. 
I often think of the talk I used to hear of that kind when 
I look about and see many of our best citizens and suc- 
cessful business men who were soldiers in that war, some 
of them from first to last. 

I don't think that Wm. Shaw would be considered 
■ very badly demoralized, nor James Loug"hridg"e, nor Ste- 
phen DeCook, nor Captain Evans, nor Major McMuUin, 
nor John F. Lacey, nor Judge Ryan, nor the McNeill 
brothers, nor Capt. John H. Warren, nor Wm. R. Cowan, 
nor Albert Swalm, nor Captain Woodruff, nor Major S. 
H. M. Byers. O, they loom up before my mind so thick 
and fast, I will have to stop or my list will be as long as 
the list of those who voted the other day in favor of ex- 
pelling the bigamist Roberts from the House of Repre- 
sentatives. I am grateful to each and every one who 
was brave and loyal enough to face the unutterable hard- 



350 MAHASKA COUNTY 

ships, which often meant death itself, in defending our 
country and our country's honor. 

Our men were gentlemen when they went into the 
army, and they were gentlemen when they came out. 
Many were wrecks physically, but I can't think of one 
who became a wreck morally or intellectually. Many of 
our wealthy farmers and business men were soldiers, and 
some have made themselves famous as writers of books. 
There is Robert Kissick, a soldier all through the rebel- 
lion, who has written a book which by critics is called a 
valuable work. Mr, and Mrs. Kissick are both gifted 
with more than ordinary ability. Their sons are bright 
boys, and two of them were in the 51st Iowa Regiment. 
One, their precious Edwyn, laid down his young life for 
his country in the Philippine Islands. All that was mor- 
tal of Edwyn Kissick was brought over that vast expanse 
of ocean and land and laid to rest in our peaceful city of 
the dead, where sleeps his brother Ralph. Mr. and Mrs. 
Kissick have one daughter, Irene, who is one of the 
nicest and brightest little ladies that I know. 

There is Major S. H. M. Byers, who went to the war 
from Oskaloosa, a mere boy in years, and while enduring 
the horrors of loathsome rebel prisons managed by 
stealth to send to the world outside, soul-stirring songs, 
the product of his brain, which were sung from one end 
of the land to the other. And still his genius shines 
brighter and brighter. The products of Major Byers' 
brain and pen are honored with a place in periodicals of 
the highest order of literature in our land. We were 
proud to have Major and Mrs. Byers for neighbors and 
citizens of our town. They are hospitable, cultured, 



REMINISCENCES. 351 

g"ifted, and have the most charming^ manners. We were 
loth to lose the Byerses, but congratulate Des Moines 
society on having gained so valuable an addition. It is 
not surprising that Major Byers is a gentleman with tal- 
ents of a superior order. The blood of the Virginia Mar- 
shalls flows in his veins, and "blood will tell." They 
have one son, Lawrence, of whom it is said, "he is a 
promising young attorney." Major Byers while abroad 
procured many valuable works of art, a number of which, 
through his liberality, adorn the halls of Penn College. 
Another of our solid and much-esteemed families have 
taken up their abode in the city of Des Moines, the 
Frankels, Mrs. Frankel, her four manly sons and her 
lovely and accomplished daughter. Rose. Somewhere 
near forty years ago Mr. Isaiah Frankel came to Oska- 
loosa and opened out a store of ready made clothing. 
His means were not great, his store was small at first, 
but he, like the most of his people, was a man of great 
business ability, and was a born merchant. He pros- 
pered in whatever he undertook. He dealt in wool, he 
engaged in banking, but all the time his clothing store 
was going on and gradually growing larger and finer. 
He bought houses and lands; he built substantial and 
handsome business houses; he purchased one of the (at 
that time) nicest homes in the town of Oskaloosa. He 
remodeled and added to until that home was one of the 
most comfortable and commodious homes in the town. 
Their lawn was a thing of beauty. 

Not long after Mr. Frankel became established in 
business, he was married to Miss Babetta Sheuerman, 
wha through all the years she has lived among us has 



352 MAHASKA COUNTY 

been a blessing and an ornament to Oskaloosa's society. 
No nobler character ever g-raced our town nor was more 
appreciated and admired by our people. Her benevo- 
lence and kindness was far reaching-. Her words of wis- 
dom charmed the intellectual and cultured. The sick 
and the poor found in her a g"enuine, sympathizing-friend. 
She made her home the abode of hospitality. She beau- 
tified everything about her. Mrs. Frankel is not only a 
noble character, but is a stately and dignified lady. 

Mr. Frankel was shrewd and brainy, but was honor- 
able in his dealings, was a valuable citizen and did much 
to build up our town. By proper management and strict 
attention to business, he became one of the wealthiest 
men in Oskaloosa. He died a few years ago, respected 
and lamented by the whole community and especially by 
his neighbors. Henrietta, Mr. and Mrs. Frankel's old- 
est daughter, is the wife of Mr. Pfeifer, a prominent 
merchant of Oskaloosa. Mrs. Pfeifer is a cultured and 
refined lady. The Frankels were my neighbors for more 
than thirty years. I have known all of their six chil- 
dren from babyhood to young manhood and young wom- 
anhood. There are Anselm, Manassa, Nathan and Henry; 
every one fine looking and manly young men bearing the 
evidences of good breeding whenever and wherever one 
chances to meet them. They seem to be endowed with 
the business sense which made their father a success. 
We were sorry to lose the Frankels as neighbors and 
citizens, but pleased to hear of their success as business 
men in their magnificent store in Des Moines. Persons 
employed by the Frankel Brothers speak of the manly 
way they deal with their employees. They put on no 



REMINISCENCKS. DoS 

supercilious airs, but act in a respectful and manly way 
tov/ard all. I think what I have said about the Frankel 
family would be endorsed by every one of their old neigh- 
bors. We feel the removal of that excellent family from 
our neig'hborhood a personal loss to each and every one 
of us. 

Away back in 1855 there was an unusual exodus from 
Ohio to low^a. I can think of a number of families that 
came that year. Some of them I have already mentioned, 
but there are some who have been prominent and valu- 
able citizens through all these years whom I have not 
yet spoken of. There was John Lofiand, his handsome 
young wife and baby George. What a handsome couple 
they were. They soon drew many of Oskaloosa's best 
people about them and made many friends. They were 
people of fine taste and charming manners. In course 
of time two more sons were added to their family. Then 
there were George. Frank and Charlie. When the civil 
war broke out, Mr. Lofiand was one who bade adieu to 
his beloved and charming wife and his three bright little 
boys, donned a soldier's uniform and went off down to 
the swamps and canebrakes of the South to be shot at. 
He escaped Rebel bullets, though in many places of 
great peril. John Lofiand was a brave man, he acquitted 
himself with honor and came home a Colonel. For many 
years Col. John Lofiand served his country as internal 
revenue collector. He had many thrilling adventures 
with "moonshiners" while in that office. George died on 
his twentieth birthday in Denver, where he had gone to 
seek relief from lung trouble. George died suddenly. 
Just a day or two before the dispatch came telling of his 

23 



354 MAHASKA COUNTY 

death, his father came to our house with joy beaming- all 
over his face He had just received a letter from George 
saying he was getting on nicely - was almost well — 
thought he would go to work in a day or two. Then 
came that tenible message: 

"George is Dead. Horace Fisher will go to 

OSKALOOSA with THE REMAINS." 

The night they were expecting the train which would 
bring their precious dead boy, several of their friends, 
my husband and myself amcmg the rest, waited and 
watched with the stricken family. The night was cold, 
a deep snow lay on the ground. I remember how dis- 
cordant the sleigh-bells sounded as they went jingling 
along the street. Away in the night some one came to the 
door, and in a gentle and saddened voice, said: "They 
are here." When the casket was brought in and opened, 
there lay George, looking peaceful as a sleeping child. 
On his breast, placed there by some tender hand, was a 
hyacinth, as fresh as if just plucked from the stem. 

More than a quarter of a century has passed since 
that sad night, but that scene of grief- stricken parents 
and brothers is fresh in my memory yet. George Lof- 
land was laid to rest in Forest Cemetery. A few years 
ago his father, the once stalwart, manly-looking Colonel 
Lofland, was laid to rest by his side, Mrs. Lofland, sad 
and bereft, like many of us, is living in a comfortable and- 
pretty home. She has many friends and her sons are 
models ot kindness. Frank and Charlie are fine looking, 
and very superior business men — moral and sober in 
their habits, gentlemanly and kind in their manners. 
Frank Lofland married Miss Bena Siebel, daughter of 



REMINISCENCES. 355 

Mr. and Mrs. John Siebel. The Siebels have been citi- 
zens of Oskaloosa for nearly forty years; have always 
been among- her substantial and highly respected fam- 
ilies. Mr. Siebel is the owner of Oskaloosa' s largest 
flouring mill, which was built and run for several years 
by Benjamin Roop. 

More than fifty years ago I stood in my cabin door 
and watched the first volume of smoke that ever poured 
from its great chimney stack. I felt so proud of Oska- 
loosa when I saw that great mill sending forth smoke 
and steam. It seemed immense to us who had witnessed 
Oskaloosa's growth from the wild prairie to the dignity 
of having a great steam mill. 

Frank Lofiand, when a boy, was a clear-headed, 
trustworthy business boy. He is a clear-headed busi- 
ness man, and is said to be going on to fortune. Frank 
looks like his father but Charlie looks like his mother. 
Charlie Lofiand married Miss Minnie Little, daughter of 
Mr. and Mrs. H. I. Little, and sister to the Little Bros., 
who everybody here knows are hustlers, bright and pleas- 
ant men to deal with. Mrs. Minnie Little Lofiand is a 
niece of the McNeills. She and Charlie have three chil- 
dren who are said to be interesting, charming and very 
bright. They could not help being bright with the blood 
of all the Lofiands, Littles and McNeills in their veins. 
Charlie Lofiand has for many years been a capable and 
trusted officer in the Oskaloosa National Bank. He and 
his charming family own and occu])y one of the handsom- 
est and most commodious homes on East High Avenue, 
one of the streets noted for fine homes. Their lawn is 
simply superb. Mrs. Charlie Lofiand is a charming 



356 MAHASKA COUNTY 

woman. Iler manners are gracious, her voice is a de- 
light. Singing runs in the Little and McNeill blood. 
Mrs. Col. Lofland has reason to be very proud of her 
sons, her daughters-in-law and her grandchildren. 

Mrs. Lofland, like so many Ohio ladies that I know, 
is an exquisite housekeeper. She makes everything 
about her pretty and attractive. Her plants, her flowers; 
her lawn, ever3^thing inside and outside of her house, is 
arranged in the very prettiest fashion. 



REMINISCENCES. 357 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Oskaloosa never had what is called a "boom," l)ut 
has just gone on in the "even tenor of its way," grow- 
ing" a little every year, sometime a little faster than other 
times. There have always been good and substantial 
people in Oskaloosa from the time the first settler built 
his log cabin in the place called The Narrows, down to 
the present time. If our town and country ever had a 
boom, it was from 1850 to 1856. Along in those years, if 
anybody wanted to sell, all they had to do was to make 
it known. There was no trouble in finding a purchaser. 
There was no such thing to be seen then as a card tacked 
on a house with "to rent" printed on it. Any sort of a 
house could be rented without advertising. Many of the 
new comers from Ohio and elsewhei'e, who had been used 
to better things, were glad to find shelter in one room, 
and a poor room at that. 

I can think of many families who came here about 
that time. The heads of many of those families have 
entei'ed the vast beyond, and some are still among us. 
The children of some of those who have gone before are 



358 MAHASKA COUNTY 

with US still, and are g-ood citizens. There are the Down- 
ings, the Lorings, the Kalbachs, the Cowans, the Mc- 
Mullins, the Laceys, the Rhineharts, the Ketners, and 
many others I could mention. 

Among" the "many others" are the Myerses, Mr. J. C. 
Myers and wife and baby Alice, who came to Oskaloosa 
from Cincinnati in 1855. The Myerses come to stay. 
They were what we called "well off" when they came, 
but money could not procure for them a better place to 
g-o to housekeeping" in than a little unfinished doctor's 
office which stood on the ground where McNeill's livery 
barn now is. The owner of that property then w^as Dr. 
Cnsick, a brother-in-law to Mitch Wilson. Mr. Myers 
was a carpenter and his first job was to fix the window 
and door of that office so the cows and pigs which were 
grazing- and rooting in the streets at will could not have 
access thereto. 

The Myerses did not stay long- in their small quar- 
ters, but straightway boug-ht a lot northwest of the square 
and built a nice, comfortable home. That property was 
owned afterwards by the Blattners. Mr. Myers many 
years ago purchased lots 7 and 8, Block 29, o. p., w^hich 
at that time was one of the most desirable homes in Os- 
kaloosa. There they lived in comfort and luxury; there 
their three daughters, Alice, Clara and Emma, passed a 
■happy childhood. There Alice was married to Mr. Case, 
a young man of good family, from Indianapolis, Indiana, 
to which place she went a happy bride. In a fewyears 
Alice returned to her father's house a widow, with two 
bright little daughters. She is now the wife of Mr. 
John J. Targgart, and is living in Monroe, Iowa. Clara 



REMINISCENCES. 359 

and Emma were both handsome girls. Their parents 
were well-to-do and gave their daughters the advantage 
of a good education. Their home was handsomely fur- 
nished, and those girls, like their mother, had the faculty 
of making everything about them pretty and attractive. 
Look where one would in that home, some beautiful piece 
of fancy work, wrought by the skillful hands of those 
daughters, met the eye. 

They made their home a center of attraction for the 
young people of the town, and nothing that would add to 
the happiness of their children was withheld by Mr. and 
Mrs. Myers. To see their children joyous was their joy. 
But there came a time in that home in which was wont to 
be heard the ring of merry voices and the sounds of mirth, 
when it was broken into by death, who is no respecter of 
homes or persons. Clara, handsome, happy, light-heart- 
ed Clara, went out of that home to return no more. They 
made her a grave in a lovely spot in Forest Cemeter\% 
whereon the snows of a score of Winters have lain as a 
mantle, and the birds of a score of Summers have sung 
and twittered. Blossoms send out their fragrance from 
the spot where rests all that is mortal of Clara M3^ers. 

Emma, the youngest daughter, married Mr. A. T, 
Barnes; "Tim,'' as everybody calls him, a son of Mr. 
and Mrs. John Barnes, residents of Oskaloosa. Tim is 
doing a fine business in general merchandise in the town 
of Leighton, nine miles west of Oskaloosa. Emma has 
an eye for the beautiful and is called a superb house- 
keeper. Her table is a marvel of taste, her cooking 
daintiness itself. 

Mr. J. C. Myers has always been an honorable, in 



360 MAHASKA COUNTY 

dustrious, careful and prosperous business man. He 
has, by honest dealing and good management, accumu- 
lated a considerable fortune. Mr. and Mrs. Myers seem 
to be of one mind and one purpose. Both knov/ how 
best to use their honestly earned dollars. The poor are 
not suffered to go hungry or cold if in reach of the 
Myerses. They are the most kind and obliging neigh- 
bors. No one receives his pay grudgingly who works 
for them. If they happen to owe anybody, they take su- 
preme delight in paying every last cent, if not a little 
more. There is a happy medium, not often attained, be- 
tween extravagance and stinginess. But Mr. and Mrs. 
Myers have just exactly struck it. They take care of 
all they have but spend their money wisely. 

To have the privilege of living in a neighborhood of 
upright and honest people is a blessing which the Lord 
has permitted me to enjoy for twenty-five years, con- 
secutively. When I say neighborhood, I mean the peo- 
ple living within a block or two of each other. There 
are several families, or remnants of families, within that 
limit, who liave been here all these years. We have 
gone in and out among each other — some have gone out 
never to return. There was David Evans and his wife, 
diagonally across the street, who twenty-nine years ago 
lived in the same cottage which stands there today. Two 
l)right children played about their house, Mae and Carl. 
Two more came to them after, Dula and Walter. Mr. 
and Mrs. Evans were upright and honorable, took great 
pains and were successful in bringing their children up 
with the ideas which make successful and respected men 
and women. Mae is a charming woman, a fine scholar, 



REMINISCENCES. 361 

and fills one of the most important positions in Oska- 
loosa's hig-h school. Dula is a student in a school of art 
in the city of Chicago, with prospects of success in that 
profession. She, like her sister Mae, has from childhood 
bore an untarnished reputation. Carl and Walter are 
careful and successful young merchants in the town of 
their nativity. Mrs. Evans preceded her husband only a 
few months to the other shore. They died in peace and 
are lying side by side in Forest Cemetery on the identical 
spot where my young husband and I first went to house- 
keeping. Their children own and occupy the house 
where they were born. Mr. Evans built the block known 
as the Evans block, which belongs to his estate. 

This is a neighborhood of old folks— a few young 
folks are sprinkled in — Dr. Clarks, the Neagles and 
Kents, for instance. The Dr. and his excellent wife have 
a handsome home, a well-kept lawn, and the very pret- 
tiest elm tree in all the town. Its trunk is straight, its 
top is wide-spreading, without a dead branch to mar its 
beauty. The Dr. may claim ownership, but he can't 
enjoy the symmetry and shade of that great old tree a 
bit more than his neighbors. Mrs. Ketner and I were 
saying this very day that on Summer afternoons it sent 
its cooling shadow across the street to our homes and 
gave us more pleasure than it did the real owners. Men 
and women cannot live to themselves alone, neither can 
they have a monopoly on their great big trees. 

Just a little way down the street is the home of Mr. 
and Mrs. R. P. Bacon, which in Summer is a bower of 
beaut3\ That place don't wait for Summer, but before 
Summer comes their tulip beds are ablaze with gorgeous 



362 MAHASKA COUNTY 

coloring. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon seem to have gathered 
from every clime all the beautiful shrubs and flowers that 
will flourish in this climate. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon are 
intelligent and interesting. Both love and tend their 
flowers, read books by the best authors, go on in the even 
tenor of their way year after year, without seeming to 
grow older. Their tastes are alike and they are of one 
mind and purpose. Their forty or more years of married 
life seem to have been one continuous honeymoon. Every 
Sunday morning they can be seen wending their way to 
the house of God. It is no wonder they don't grow old. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bacon have lived in Mahaska County since 
their youth. Mrs. Bacon is a sister to Mrs. Baugh, wife 
of the Rev. John M. Baugh, who has been a popular min- 
ister in the Presbyterian Church of Oskaloosa for more 
than twenty years. 

Mr. Baugh is a cultured gentleman of fine mind and 
manners, and has fine social qualities, though in his 
boyhood he knew what plowing corn and living in log 
cabins meant. He relates in an amusing way the exper- 
iences of his boyhood. There were several of the Baugh 
brothers, and all attained prominence in one way or an- 
other. George Baugh has been many times elected 
mayor of Oskaloosa. Thomas Baugh, another brother, 
was a physician in high standing, and when his death oc- 
curred a few years ago many of Oskaloosa's citizens felt 
that an honored citizen, a useful and good man had been 
taken from us. 

Rev. John Baugh and his excellent family own and 
occupy one of the most charming homes on East First 
Avenue, one of the prettiest streets in town. Who that 



REMINISCENCES. 363 

has an eye for the beautiful does not linger and gaze 
with delight when passing that charming, vine-covered 
home ? 

I realize that my story of reminiscenses is assuming 
great length, much greater than I dreamed of in the be- 
ginning, but there are so many nice people whose char- 
acters I admire and who have shown me great kindness, 
I want to tell about them. It is hard to find a stopping 
place. The house just across the street west of mine was 
built by Dr. J. Y. Hopkins during the war of the rebel- 
lion, or rather by Mrs. Hopkins, who was a woman of ^ 
much executive ability. The doctor went to the war and 
Mrs. Hopkins built that house while he was gone. Dr. 
Hopkins was counted among Oskaloosa's most learned 
and successful practitioners. In 1868 the Hopkinses sold 
that substantial and commodious home to Mr. D. M. 
Walton, who with his excellent wife occupy that home 
today. They came from Waynesburg, Penn. The Wal- 
tons are well-to-do; are excellent neighbors. Mr. Wal- 
ton is a gentleman of the old school, always kind and po- 
lite. Mrs. Walton's girlhood home was in Canton, Ohio. 
She is a charming lady, full of benevolence, and can in- 
terest one by the hour. Mr. Walton has been an invalid 
for many years and her kindness and tender care of him 
through it all has won for her the respect and admira- 
tion of all her neighbors. Mr. Walton's eyesight failed 
many years ago. He was compelled to retire from ac- 
tive business; has borne his great affliction with patience 
and Christian resignation. I can remember when he 
was tall, erect and capable of holding his own with the 
best business man in the country. But now he is aged 



364 MAHASKA COUNTY 

and feeble, being several years past four score, and is 
frequently prostrated with the infirmities of age. His 
faithful wife reads to him, cheers him with words of 
kindness and nurses him back to his usual health. Mrs. 
Walton is a handsome woman as well as charming in 
manner. I told Mr. Walton one day I w^as sorry he 
couldn't see her, for as the years go by she grows hand- 
somer. 

Mrs. Col. Pond, a sister of Mrs. Walton's, makes her 
an extended visit occasionally. Her visits are hailed 
with delight by the neighbors. Mrs. Pond, too, was 
brought up in the town of Canton, Ohio, where she was 
a teacher many years. She once chaperoned a bevy of 
girls on a tour through Europe, Miss Ida Saxton, who is 
now the wife of President McKinley, among the rest. 
Mrs.. Pond is a lady of fine mind, great good sense and 
charming manners. Her society is delightful, her con- 
versation entertaining and instructive. She has traveled 
much, has met and become acquainted with many promi- 
nent people besides President McKinley and his family, 
who were her near neighbors and intimate friends. Mrs. 
Pond is exceedingly well informed; is dignified without a 
particle of haughtiness. To have the privilege of the 
society of a lady like Mrs. Pond is a pleasure indeed. 

Mr. and Mrs. Eli Ketner lived just across the street 
from me twenty-nine years ago, and they live there to- 
day. They have a very comfortable and cozy home, 
where they sit in their easy chairs, read their news- 
papers, and wait for the change which will soon come to 
us all. When we first became such near neighbors each 
family had two sons — strong, robust young men, full of 



REMINISCENCES. 365 

life and brig-ht expectations. Will and Charlie Ketner 
were in school in Iowa University. Charlie's health 
failed, he left schoc^l and went into business in Minne- 
sota, but before long- he came home to his father's house, 
and after ling-ering- for months in great ]iain he died in 
peace and was laid to rest in Forest Cemetery. Will fin- 
ished a full course in school, graduated in medicine, then 
took Miss Mary Pearson, a splendid young- woman, for 
his wife. Their home is in Colorado, where I hear they 
are prospering-, and have a pleasant home, brightened by 
two splendid sons and two splendid daughters, and pre- 
sided over by a gentle, intelligent, Christian mother. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ketner have ahvays been well-to-do, 
and have provided for the proverbial rainy day. They 
attend strictly to their own, and very little to other- peo- 
ple's business. They, like the rest of us, know what it 
is to have their home made desolate by the hand of death. 
Only a few months ago their beloved and only daughter, 
Mrs, Mary Smith, while seemingly in the prime of life, 
was suddenly called to join the great majority. I think 
it has been six years since Mr. and Mrs. Ketner passed 
the fiftieth anniversary of their journey together. 

In the next house but one below the Ketner place 
live Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Stevens, who invited their 
friends, neighbors and kin folks to their home to cele- 
brate with them their golden wedding, in the month of 
May, 1893, and yet on any pleasant Sabbath morning Mr. 
and Mrs. Stevens can be seen walking side by side, their 
faces turned toward the Presbyterian Church. They, 
like Mr. and Mrs. Ketner, live alone and are still able to 
take care of themselves. Both the Ketners and the Ste- 



366 MAHASKA COUNTY 

venses came from Ohio to Oskaloosa away back in the 
fifties. 

As I have ah'eady remarked, this is a neighborhood 
of old folks. I don't think another can be found in Oska- 
loosa where so many men and women are living in two 
blocks of each other who have passed the three score and 
ten mark. There are lots of great grandfathers and 
great grandmothers in the two square limit. Mr. Walton 
has seen the fourth generation long ago. Dr. and Mrs. 
Clark's babies, Anna Lois and George Hadley. not only 
have a grandfather and a grandmother Hadley, but a 
great grandfather Hadley, all living so near together 
that one cannot tell where the Dr. Clark lawn ends and 
the Hadley lawn begins. 

Mrs. Thomas Newell, who has a cozy home and a 
nicely-kept lawn which is bright with flowers every Sum- 
mer, is great grandmother to little Dorris Brewster, 
granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Lacey. 

Mrs. Norris, who is away past ninety, lives only a 
block from me. She is a sweet-spirited, saintly woman, 
retains her mental faculties, and is ready to depart when 
the Master calls. No mother w^as ever blessed with a 
more devoted daughter than is Mrs. Norris. Mary Nor- 
ris is a model of affectionate tenderness — an interesting, 
intelligent woman. Their cozy cottage is the abode of 
peace, and that mother and daughter are all the world to 
each other. 

Oskaloosa was founded by superior people and has 
always held her own in that respect. Several of them 
are dwelling in my two- block limit. I am afraid I am 
not going to have time and space to say all that I want to 



REMINISCENCES. 367 

say about them. There is Mr. Frank E. Smith and his 
bright and handsome wife, who have a family of bright 
children. Lena, the oldest, is a capable business girl and 
has gentle manners. Nye, their first born son, was a 
member of the 51st Iowa regiment, crossed the mighty 
Pacific to fight Spaniards and Filipinos. Nye acquitted 
himself with credit and his parents, brothers and sisters, 
had the joy of seeing him come home safe and sound. 
Mr. Frank E. Smith has been known by Mahaska's peo- 
ple ever since he was a bo}^ Everybody around thought 
him a tip-top boy, and since arriving at man's estate he 
has had the confidence of all who knew him. He has 
been many times elected to fill important offices and was 
never known to betray the trust placed in him. Mr. 
Smith is an honorable, capable, obliging business man; 
an unassuming, manly man; a gentleman; all of which I 
can testify to from personal knowledge. 

Dr. Pardun and his wife have been my neighbors for 
many years. They have one of the prettiest places in 
Oskaloosa. Their house is elegant. Their walks, their 
lawn, their flowers, their trees, everything about their 
premises, is in the best order it could be. Mrs. Pardun 
has the reputation all over this end of town of being the 
most scrupulously orderly person to be found anywhere. 
She is a nice neighbor and an intelligent woman. The 
doctor has an infirmary and is what is called a mag- 
netic healer. He is an honest, upright man, has no evil 
to say of anybody, but attends strictly to his own busi- 
ness. Dr. Pardun has an extensive practice, not only 
among our own citizens but many come to him to be 
treated from abroad. 



368 MAHASKA COUNTY 

Doctors are numerous in my neighborhood, there are 
already four in less than two blocks, and I am told that 
another is soon to be my next door neighbor, Dr. Ripley 
Hoffman, son and partner of Dr. D. A. Hoffman, who has 
been a successful physician in Oskaloosa and all over 
Mahaska County for nearly forty years. He had a good 
practice from the first and still has the confidence of 
hundreds of our citizens. Though the weight of j^ears 
is beginning to tell, the "Old Dr.,"" as he is called, can 
be seen almost any day, wrapped and tucked up in his 
buggy, striking out in the country to see some patient 
who thinks that no other doctor can relieve their aches 
and pains as readily as Dr. Hoffman. 

Dr. Hoffman, with his wife and four children, came 
from Ohio and located in Oskaloosa in 1801. They were 
a remarkably fine-looking couple. The Dr. was a tall, 
manly-looking man, with broad shoulders and a strong 
face. Mrs. Hoffman has always had scores of friends, 
was an elegant-looking lady forty years ago and is an 
elegant-looking lady to-day. Dr. Ripley, "Rip," as he 
is usually called, the one who is going to be my neighbor, 
is about as popular a doctor as his father is. Dr. Hoff'- 
man Sr. and his wife have a home on First Avenue East, 
a complete, pleasant home, surrounded by one of Oska- 
loosa' s typical lawns, which in Summer is bright with 
roses. That home is also the home of their widowed 
daughter, Mrs. Effie Hoffman Rogers, a lady possessed 
of many admirable qualities, among which are kindness, 
self-reliance and unaffected manners. Mrs. Rogers has 
been county superintendent of public schools, w^hich re- 
sponsible position she filled with credit to herself and 
satisfaction to her constituents. 



REMINISCENCES. 369 

Edgar, Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman's oldest son, is a tiller 
of the soil, preferred farming- to a profession. He and 
his worthy wife and bright children occupy and cultivate 
a fine farm four or five miles west of Oskaloosa. John, 
the next son, is a lawyer, practicing his chosen profes- 
sion in Great Falls, Montana. Ripley, as I have before 
stated, is the doctor. The Dr. and Mrs. Hoffman are 
grandparents many times over and, I have heard it said, 
have a bevy of mighty smart grandchildren. 

Edgar married the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Cabe, who came from the city of Dublin, Ireland, and lo- 
cated in Mahaska County nearly half a century ago. 
Both having been bred and brought up in the higher 
walks of life, were highly accomplished and exceedingly 
well educated. The doctor, who died several years ago, 
was said to be very learned in his profession, and not 
only that, but was wont to be • styled a "walking en- 
clyclopedia. " In addition to his literary attainments, Dr. 
McCabe was a distinguished looking gentleman. Mrs. 
McCabe is a lady possessed of many and varied accom- 
plishments; scholarly, exceedingly well informed in both 
ancient and modern history, literature of the day and 
poetry of the long ago, brilliant in reparte, a fine per- 
former on the piano, writes and speaks French like a na- 
tive (it is said by those who know.) Her faculty for con- 
versing in the purest English is not surpassed. I told 
her one day that I had never known but one except her- 
self who had the faculty of expressing every shadow of a 
thought in the purest English, and that other was Henry 
Ward Beecher. Mrs. Swalm uttered a truth when she 
said, "In all the wide, wide world, there is but one Mary 

24 



370 MAHASKA COUNTY 

McCabe. " The Dr. and Mrs. McCabe have some inter- 
esting-, bright and witty sons and daughters. Maggie is 
a superior young lady in many respects and Will has the 
reputation of being a young man of honor, who was 
never known to do a mean thing nor say a flat one. 
Francis, another son, is engaged on the staif of the Neui 
York World. Louis, another son, fine looking and gen- 
tlemanly in manner, is filling a responsible and lucrative 
position as train dispatcher in the city of Fort Worth, 
Texas. 

Mrs. Baker is another of my old neighbors not 
counted among the "old set,'' though she is a grand- 
mother. Her daughter and only child, Margery, mar- 
ried Mr. Rominger, a young attorney of Bloomfield, 
Iowa, who is said to be a young man of ability and moral 
character. Mrs. Baker spared neither pains nor money 
in giving her daughter the advantages of an education. 
Margery attained quite a reputation as an elocutionist. 
Mrs. Baker has been a widow many years. Her husband, 
Erwin Baker, was a scholar and much esteemed citizen. 
Has filled the position of county superintendent; was 
what is called an educator. Mr. Baker provided boun- 
tifully for his family and left them in comfortable cir- 
cumstances. Mrs. Baker has a comfortable, well-fur- 
nished home, has many valuable books, is a reader, re- 
tains what she reads and is interesting in conversation. 
Mrs. Baker's home is on South First Street, only a block' 
from mine, where she has lived more than a quarter of a 
century. Margery was born there and there she was 
married. 

Immediately aci'oss the street to the east of Mrs. 



REMINISCENCES. 371 

Baker's place is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hos- 
tetter, one of the very nicest places in the town. Their 
house is a model house. Their lawn is beautiful and al- 
w^ays kept in perfect trim. The Hostetters are not old 
folks but they have a charming- way of greeting- w^e old 
folks when we chance to meet them. 

Mrs. Rhinehart's fine home is close by and she, too, 
has a nice lawn, all of which I can see from my window. 
In looking over these homes of architectural beauty, 
with their vine-covered verandas surrounded with plats 
of velvety grass and bright flowers, my mind sometimes 
g-oes back to a time half a century ag-o when those lovely 
lawms, cement walks, paved streets with little green 
parks along their sides, was John Montg-omery's corn- 
field, surrounded by a great high staked and ridered 
rail fence. 

Among the young people of my neighborhood are 
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kent. They both come from good 
families and are scholarly. Mr Kent was at one time 
principal of Oskaloosa's public schools, and was elected 
to the office of county superintendent and served one 
term. I never heard that he did not fill both places sat- 
isfactorily. Mr. and Mrs. Kent have a little son whom 
they call Forest. It is not often that one has seen six 
generations of one family, but I have seen and known six 
g-enerations of that family. I have seen little Forest's 
great g-reat great grandmother. 

The Neagle young- people live in my neighborhood — 
Will and Jim and Lizzie. They have lived in Oskaloosa 
nearly all their lives. Lizzie keeps house for her broth- 
ers, who are business men of untarnished reputation. 



372 MAHASKA COUNTY 

They are fine-looking" young men and have faultless man- 
ners. Lizzie Neagle is a charming girl, tall and hand- 
some, with the manners of a well-bred lady. The par- 
ents of these worthy young people have long been sleep- 
ing" in Forest Cemetery. I used to know their mother, 
who was one of the loveliest ladies I ever met. As these 
stately sons and daughter pass my door I often think, 
how proud their mother would have been to see them as 
I see them. 

I see John Montgomery mowing his lawn; he has 
been cleaning up his garden and lawn for two or three 
days. This is April 2bth, 1900. Every Spring for many 
years I have seen Mr. Montgomery employed in the 
same way. As I watch him feebly pushing that lawn- 
mower I think of a time fifty-six years ago when he was 
a strong, energetic, stalwart young man, holding the 
handles of a great prairie plow which was being drawn 
by four yoke of oxen. He was one of the company of 
four or five who staked out their claims at The Narrows 
so early in the morning of May first, 1843. 

Mr. Montgomery is the only man living of that eager 
group, and the only man that I can think of in Oska- 
foosa or in miles around (unless, possibly, William B. 
Campbell, who lives three or four miles east of town, was 
one) who was on the ground in the beginning. 

Those pioneers are nearly all gone. Their places of 
burial are as diversified as were their homes before 
they found this garden spot of Iowa. John White 
was the only one who lived and died and was buried on 
the land they took possession of on that memorable first 
of May. Mr. Canfield started to Oregon in 1846 or 1847. 



REMINISCENCES. 373 

I heard that he was killed by Indians and his wife and 
daug-hter Ellen taken captives. Felix Gessford died not 
long- ago at Bentonsport, Iowa. 

A. G. Phillips went to California in 1852 and all that 
is mortal of one who was so prominent a factor in Oska- 
loosa's start in life lies buried in Calaveras Co., Califor- 
nia. When I introduced the Phillipses to the reader, 
there were nine sons and daughters in that family, their 
ages ranging- from twenty-six down to baby Ella, who 
now is the wife of Capt. J. R. C. Hunter, an honorable 
man and a gentleman. Their home is in Webster City, 
Iowa. They are grandparents man}^ times over. Sin- 
clair, the next older, married Flora Collins, sister to 
Mrs. Shara, Mrs. Washburn and Miss Myra Collins, who 
have been engaged in Oskaloosa's schools for many 
years. They are all highly cultured ladies. Sinclair 
died in 1885 in Audubon Co., Iowa, leaving a wife and 
several children. Hazel, who lives with her aunts, the 
Collins ladies, is Sinclair's daughter. We are all proud 
of Hazel; she is well educated, has nice manners and is a 
first-class girl generally. Her aunts have g-iven her op- 
portunities and shown her g"reat kindness. 

James, the next, lives in Oklahoma. I have already 
mentioned Mrs. Jackson (Jo). Sam, the next older than 
Joan, was a handsome and smart boy. When he was 
only seventeen years old, in 1852, he went to California, 
where he died and was buried at San Jose. Rachel, the 
next, was a g"irl of superior mind and developed into an 
intellectual, superior, tactful woman, full of resources 
and charming- in manners. Rachel married Mr. Robert 
Tomlinson, who died years ago. Rachel's home for many 



374 MAHASKA COUNTY 

years has been in Washington, D. C. Martha, who was 
an excellent young lady, married Dr. A. C. Cunningham 
in 1848. They settled in Knoxville when that town was 
very new. Martha died in 1868 leaving three little 
daughters. Florence, who is the wife of Mr. William 
Gamble, is an intelligent and interesting woman. Alice 
is the wife of a Mr, Culver, a fine business man of Knox- 
ville and Lola is now Mrs. Phelps, of the same place. 
All are superior women. 

Watson, the next older than Martha, married Lois 
Ramey. They went to California thirty years ago, loca- 
ted in Calaveras County, where in 1899 Watson died and 
was buried. His wife Lois and two daughters survive 
him. Gorrell was next, and the eldest son in the Phillips 
family. Elizabeth, who is the oldest of that family, 
was the wife of Nathaniel Lindsay, and was married be- 
fore the Phillipses came to Iowa. She still lives near 
the place where she and her husband went to house- 
keeping; she is eighty years old and has been a widow 
nearly forty years. Watson and Lois were married in 
in 1846, the same year that Gorrell and I were married. 
We all went to housekeeping at nearly the same time, 
Watson and Lois on a forty joining ours on the east; how 
happy and light-hearted we were. I don't think anything 
more serious happened to mar our happiness than a little 
jealousy on my part because Lois' tomatoes would ripen 
before mine did, and she always had better luck with 
chickens. 

Watson sold his beautiful land — part of it being the 
forty acres where Mr. Kalbach's fine home, the Matti- 
sons, the Kemble greenhouse, and so many other fine 



REMINISCENCES. o/O 

places are now — to the Majors brothers, Jacob and John 
P., the same Majorses I have ah'eady mentioned. And 
just here I want to say that the Phillips family all 
thought Jacob Majors was greatly wronged in a difficulty 
he had with some parties in the early days regarding a 
claim. A frenzied mob went to his home, destroyed his 
stock and growing crops and shamefully abused him. I 
don't suppose there was one in ten of that mob knew 
what the grievance was, and yet some parties about 
twenty years ago compiled a book called "A History of 
Mahaska County,'' in which they treated in a flippant 
manner that savage and brutal outrage on a good citizen 
and a decent man. 

Amos Gorrell Phillips was born near Chillicothe, 
Ohio, October 6th, 1796. His parents, Thomas and 
Martha Gorrell Phillips, emigrated to that new place 
from near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1 795. Amos was 
the youngest of twelve children. The family moved to 
Kentucky when he was a boy, where in 1819 he was mar- 
ried to Hannah Sinclair, who was the mother of all the 
ten children I have mentioned. Mrs. Phillips died No- 
vember 19th, 1847. They had four children when they 
left Kentucky and settled in Morgan County, Illinois, in 
1832. They lived there twelve years, then came to this 
place, and purchased all those broad acres I have so 
often mentioned, thinking there was enough for all his 
boys. Not one of them own a rod of that fine land, save 
a little square plot in Forest Cemetery, where my pre- 
cious dead are sleeping. 



376 MAHASKA COUNTY 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Mr. A. G. Phillips was a friend of Judge J. A. L. 
Crookbam, who came and located in Oskaloosa away 
back in the forties. Mr. Phillips bad been a pupil in a 
school taug-bt by Mr. Crookbam 's father in Southern 
Ohio in the early part of this century. The elder Crook- 
liam was said to be the most learned man in all that re- 
gion. I have heard it said that he would have been 
called a g"reat scholar anywhere. There were some su- 
perior families living in Southern Ohio, even in that early 
time, who were ambitious to have their sons instructed 
in the higher branches of learning. Many a bright boy 
who in manhood became famous, was for his start on the 
road to fame indebted to instruction received at the feet 
of that modern ''Aristotle of the Wilderness." That 
learned man was father of a numerous family, all posses- 
sing more than ordinary ability. J. A. L. Crookbam is a 
lawyer, and had been a citizen of Oskaloosa only a short 
time when he was elected county judge. He is now re- 
tired on account of the infirmities of age, but was a suc- 
cessful attorney at law for nearly a half century. He, 



REMINISCENCES. 377 

like nearly all the Crookhams, is a financier, has accum- 
ulated a considerable fortune, and has always been a 
prominent factor in the business affairs and politics of 
the town and county. 

Judge Crookham is a man of noble impulses, and 
always has a kind word to say of everybody. Many 
young men have read law in his office and received in- 
struction in the same from him, my son Orlando among 
the rest. Judge Crookham has an individuality, and has 
always been called eccentric, but his eccentricities are 
not of the kind that hurt people. He is honorable, just 
and charitable. Judge Crookham has been twice mar- 
ried, has three sons and two daughters. The scholarly 
propensities of their illustrious grandfather seem to have 
descended to the third generation. Elizabeth Euclid and 
Sara, the daughters, are among the most learned of Oska- 
loosa's brilliant daughters; both, after receiving a good ed- 
ucation in our schools, graduated from Holyoke. Elizabeth 
Euclid has taught for years in the schools of Portland, 
Oregon, has traveled much and been twice in Europe. 
Both are practical women as well as learned. Sara, too, 
has taught abroad, but came home to assist her mother 
in nursing her invalid father, and not long ago was mar- 
ried to Mr. Rufus Davis, one of Oskaloosa's very best 
young men. Mr. Davis is clerk of Mahaska County and 
has the reputation of being a superior young business 
man. Judge Crookham is now four score, was less than 
thirty when he opened up a little office on the south side 
of the square. He has known nearly all the Mahaska 
people I have mentioned and if he was able to read my 
story, would say, "I know what she is talking about." 



378 MAHASKA COUNTY 

I have reason to think and speak kindly of the peo- 
ple of Mahaska County. From my youth up, whether in 
prosperity or adversity, health or sickness, joy or sor- 
row, they have shown me g"reat kindness. When the hus- 
band of my youth, after we had traveled life's journey 
tog"ether for almost half a century, closed his eyes for- 
ever on the thing's of earth and darkness and desolation 
surrounded me, they came to me with tender words of 
sympathy, they filled my house with flowers. The same 
kind acts were repeated when but a few weeks after that 
g"reat bereavement my bright grandson Willie was taken 
from us. Willie and his sisters, Daughter and Anne, my 
son Orlando's children, had lived with me and been like 
my own ever since their gentle mother died, twelve 
years ago. In less than one year death had claimed four 
of my dear ones; husband, grandson Willie, sister Jo and 
my beloved and only brother Calvin. Each dear one has 
his or her own place in our hearts. That brother was 
one of the truest men I ever knew. How I used to look 
forward to the times when he would visit us. How we 
enjoyed talking over our own special affairs, not particu- 
larly interesting to any but just our two selves. But 
one morning, it was the 30th of May, Decoration day, 
1896, I received a telegram saying: 

"There is no Hope. Prepare for the Worst." 
In the afternoon I received another saying: 
"Father Died at 4 p. m. Edwin." 

The dear brother whom I had loved so much had 
entered the great beyond. From boyhood up he had 
been a conscientious and devout Christian. He was pas- 



REMINISCENCES. 379 

tor of Friends church at Kokomo, Inch, where he died. 
He was laid to rest by the side of the wife of his youth in 
Wilming-ton, Ohio. Esther, his present wife, a woman of 
fine mind and strong Christian character, and four manly 
sons survive him. I never knew a more devoted husband 
and father than Calvin W. Pritchard. 

Death had not broken into our immediate family un- 
til my husband and I had traveled thirty-six years of 
life's journey together. We had been so happy and 
proud of our two little boys, Orlando and Quincy. How 
their father loved them. They didn't cease playing, 
cower and shrink off in a corner when they saw their 
father coming, nor was that father ever too tired to take 
his little boys in his loving arms or have them climb on 
his knee. He was a chivalrous, manly man, always true 
to his word. It meant something to him when he plighted 
his troth at the marriage altar. The woman whose right 
hand was held in his when the solemn words were spoken, 
"until death shall separate you," was always the first 
lady in the land to him. No word or hint of anything 
but death separating us was ever uttered between us. 
Such words, to us, would have seemed akin to blasphemy. 
When our sons had grown to young manhood and Orlan- 
do, after reading law and being admitted to the bar, 
opened out an office and began practicing law, he went 
to Delaware, Ohio, where he had been a student in the 
Wesleyan University, and married Miss Sallie J. New- 
hall, a beautiful and gentle young lady, and brought her 
to our home, where she was received with open arms. 
Sallie was modest and unassuming and not at all vain, 
though she was very beautiful. Her complexion was 



380 MAHASKA COUNTY 

like cream and roses, dark brown hair and g"reat liquid 
brown eyes. We all loved her and were very proud of 
our daughter. She made many friends. There was 
never an unkind word between us, though we were to- 
gether almost daily for fifteen years. Sallie was a 
sweet-spirited Christian woman and when death came 
was not afraid to die. Four children were born to Or- 
lando and Sallie. 

Semira Jane, whom we have always called Daughter, 
was named for her grandmothers. John Gorrell, "Jackie" 
as we called him, was the next. The first grave made on 
our little square of ground in Forest Cemetery was for 
dear, bright, handsome "Jackie," who had been with us 
a little less than six years when the Lord took him. 
Anne Lee was the next, now a tall, handsome, fine look- 
ing woman married to Mr. Jenkin Davis, an energetic 
young business man of Oskaloosa. Two sons have been 
born to Jenkin and Anne, which makes me a great grand- 
mother. William Phillips Davis, my first great grandson, 
is handsome and smart, we think, and tries to do every- 
thing he sees anybody else do. John Quincy, his little 
brother, after a brief stay with us, was laid beside his 
grandmother and little uncle "Jackie." William Lacey, 
"Willie," the last of Orlando and Sallie's four children, 
was only eight years old when his mother died. Willie 
died September 15, 1895. He was a bright, energetic, 
manly boy. He, too, sleeps among his kin. 

Daughter was a sweet and lovely child, was her 
grandpapa's darling, though he dearly loved all his 
grandchildren. Daughter was the first, and the first 
little girl to come into our family. She has developed 



REMINISCENCKS. 381 

into a noble, intellig^ent, j^i'actical and handsome woman. 
Three years ago she was married to Mr. David William 
Woodruff, son of Captain Woodruff, of Oskaloosa. Mr. 
Woodruff is a fine-looking- young business man, full of 
energy, and a fine mechanic. Daughter and her husband 
live with me, and they relieve me (»f many cares and 
treat me with great kindness. 

Mr. Moody, the great evangelist, once said: "If you 
want your hearts filled with love, take the New Testa- 
ment and look for, read and study all the passages which 
speak of love, and the first you know your hearts will be 
full of love.'' 

I have tried to tell a true story of the times when 
Mahaska was a wilderness — of the pioneers, and many 
who came later. I have written and thought so much 
about their noble traits and deeds, that if I ever thought 
they had any faults, I have forgotten them. I have en- 
deavored to tell my story "with charity toward all and 
malice toward none." It is a good thing to "cast the 
beam out of one's own eye.'' 

This simple and unpretentious story has assumed 
much greater length than I had any thought of its doing 
when I began to tell it. I hope it will be received in the 
spirit in which it was told. Much of it has been told 
with an aching heart, and with tears blinding my eyes, 
in the dead hours of night, in loneliness, in desolation, 
with thoughts ever and anon flying to the little square of 
earth in Forest Cemetery where so many of my precious 
dead are sleeping, and where by the husband of my youth 
and my beloved son Quincy I will soon be sleeping myself. 



382 MAHASKA COUNTY 

My noble, great-hearted Quincy, who loved his 
mother with all his true, manly nature. Whom I 
thought would be the solace of my old age, the stay of 
my declining years. Quincy was in all my plans for the 
future, but he went out from his home one night with a 
tender word of leave-taking, expecting to be back in a 
few hours, as was his habit; but in a few hours he was 
brought home to his mother with eyes closed forever to 
the things of earth, and the voice we all loved so much 
to hear, forever stilled. We don't know what terrible 
shocks of grief we can endure until we are compelled to 
endure them. When I was told that a stroke of apo- 
plexy had ended the life of my precious son, I thought I 
would be stricken myself. I kept looking for it to come, 
but the stroke did not come. The Lord gave me grace 
to bear that terrible blow, and to go on with my story, a 
considerable part of which had been written and read to 
that dear son, who would laugh and say: "Mother, it 
takes you a long time to reach Mahaska County, but go 
on; it's all right." His brothers of the Masonic order, 
of which he was a member and to which he was much at- 
tached, came to me in that time of deep sorrow with 
tender sympathy and kind acts which I hope never to 
become ungrateful enough to forget. Those noble 
friends watched by his lifeless body, they manifested 
the greatest respect, they followed him to the grave and 
tenderly laid him to rest with the rites peculiar to their 
order. 

Since I began this story, in January, 1898, some of 
the old settlers have lain down life's burdens and have 
entered into rest. There was Mrs. Brewer, one of the 



REMINISCENCES. 383 

brig-htest women of her age I ever knew; and Aunt Sade 
Boswell, who had endeared herself to many Oskaloosa 
people; and D. W. Loring, who was an honored citizen 
of Oskaloosa to the day of his death — just the other day 
he crossed the dark river. 

I have witnessed the gradual development of this 
goodly land from wild woods and wild prairies to beauti- 
ful, cultivated farms; from the crudest kind of log cabins 
to elegant mansions, such as we never dreamed of in the 
early days; from no school-houses nor churches at all to 
such magnificent structures as are to be seen all over 
Oskaloosa, in her houses of worship and temples of 
learning. 

I did not plan to finish my story on Oskaloosa's 
fifty-sixth birthday, but that is what I have done. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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